Research On Social Integration Of Migrant Workers

With the industrialization of China, more and more agricultural labors came tocity since1980s. However, under the different social background, migrant workers’states of working and life are different. During the early years of reform in China,migrant workers worked in the city only in slack seasons. Under the circumstance,most of the migrant workers were in a state of working between city and countryside.Only a few migrant workers could stay in the city for a long time. After entering the21st century, the economic level enhances a lot and there are more and moreopportunities for migrant workers to find jobs in the city. Besides, the infrastructureand cultural atmosphere in the city are much better than in the countryside. Therefore,more and more migrant workers are willing to stay in the city. Though, due to variousfactors such as institution, culture, and personality, migrant workers cannot enjoy thesame civil rights as citizens. Whether the social action or the social identity of migrantworkers, they are definitely different from citizens’. As a result, it is hard for migrantworkers to integrate into the urban society.With the development of China’s modernization and urbanization, academia andsociety pay more and more attention on the social integration of migrant workers. Thesocial integration of migrant workers is not just a simple process of labor migration. Itis a process of "the city adapts", in which migrant works should adapt themselves tothe political, economic, social and cultural aspects of city life. In the first part of thisessay, it reviews relevant researches of domestic and foreign countries about migrantand social integration of floating population. Besides, this essay describes thecharacteristics of migrant workers in China and analyzes the reasons which encourage them to come to city. The living conditions of migrant works and factors which arenegative to their social integration are also analyzed. As a result, the author finds thatit is because of non-equalization of public services that hinders the process of socialintegration. Since migrant works cannot enjoy equal public services which include theservices of employment, housing, education, technical training, and social securitywith citizens, it is hard for migrant workers and citizens to feel close to each other.Migrant workers do not feel they are belonging to city. Under these circumstances, itis not conducive to the transfer and urbanization of rural labor force. Thus, in order toreach a successful result of social integration of migrant workers, this essay not onlytakes lessons from foreign experiences, but also provides some suggestions liketransforming the government concept, reforming related systems, increasing thefinancial investment, an innovating the provision models of public services, etc.