Economic Growth:The Fundamental Path to the Realization of Social Security Rights for Migrant Workers

The International Labour Organization seems to only see the aspect of social security promoting economic growth,while neglecting the aspect of economic growth supporting social security.From the standpoint of materialism and the practice of social security,the realization of social security rights for migrant workers fundamentally depends on economic growth.The Belt and Road Initiative has provided a Chinese solution for creating a strong material and technological foundation to meet the social security needs of all people,including migrant workers.

What Drives Migrants Back to Set up Firms?Return-home Entrepreneurial Intention of Rural Migrant Workers in China

The extant literature on international immigrants has discussed migrants’entrepreneurial activities in the context of Western countries but has paid little attention to return-home entrepreneurial intention(RHEI).Rural migrant workers(RMWs)in China,who used to promote rural development by remittances and were characterized by similarities with early international migrants,have gradually returned to their hometowns to initiate entrepreneurial activities.Based on the structured questionnaire conducted in 2015 and 2020in Anhui Province,China,this article combines the concept of mixed embeddedness with the idea of double-layered embeddedness and analyzes the impacts of the social,economic and institutional context in RMWs’hometowns and migration destinations on RMWs’RHEI by using binary logistic regression.The article shows that the social,economic,and institutional environments of RMWs’hometowns and migration destinations have effects on their RHEI.The embeddedness in the economic and informal institutional context in RMWs’RHEI is even more important than personal characteristics.Compared with migration destinations,RMWs’hometowns exert a more influential effect on their RHEI.However,that does not mean that the role of migration destinations can be undervalued.Actually,the better the social,economic,and institutional environments of migration destinations RMWs moved into is,the higher entrepreneurial intention they will have after returning to their hometowns.The article proposes a modified framework in combination of mixed embeddedness with double-layer embeddedness and proves that it is suitable for analyzing RMWs’RHEI.The framework has important implications for strengthening China’s RMWs to return home to start their own businesses.

Influential Factors of House-purchasing Intention in Work construction Sites among Migrant Workers with a Case of Investigations on 203 Migrant Workers from Jiangxi Province

The research selected 13 factors from individual and family characters, construction site characters and work characters and analyzed the influences on the willingness of purchasing houses on construction sites with Logistic regression mod- el. The results showed that gender, age differences, personality, willingness on fami- ly land conversion, management of enterprises on construction sites, relatives and friends on construction lands, and Job satisfaction were approved by significant testing, but marital status, annual household income, the rate of migrant worker in a household, transportation in work city, and corporate reputation were not approved by significant testing.

HOW to Look at the ＂Migrant Worker Shortage＂ from an Economic Perspective

The ＂migrant worker shortage＂ which occurred several）pears ago and the recent ＂labor shortage＂ were both caused by an imbalance between the supply and demand of migrant workers. It is a periodical outcome of spontaneous adjustment by the migrant labor market. As rural welfare was greatly enhanced in 2009, migrant workers＇ opportunity cost of working outside their hometowns was raised. The connotation of migrant workers＇ ＂market price＂ is changing. The new generation of migrant workers, namely, those born after 1980, are becoming the mainstay of enterprises＇ employment. Being better educated, they have different lifestyles than previous generations. ＂Leisure and entertainment＂ have become part of their opportunity cost and reduced their labor supply. ＂Labor shortage＂ is an endogenous force that helps transform China＇s growth patter, upgrade the industrial structure and promote urbanization. The seasonal ＂return of migrant workers＂ and the ＂labor shortage＂ which appears around China＇s Spring Festival each year have grown into a unique b,t effective collective bargaining mechanism that helps increase migrant workers＇ wages. Facing labor shortages, governments should regulate the labor market pricing and orientate labor-intensive enterprises towards transition, continue to enhance the social security system for migrant workers and those in rural areas, and make an accurate forecast of the population trend and adjust population policies.

Problems of Rural Migrant Workers and Policies in the New Period of Urbanization

The huge migration of rural workers has new characteristics such as the bad order, high degree of concentration, low level of collective action, marginality in social status, unfair treatment, difficult integration of the new generation, and the new return trend of rural migrants, which causes ‘urban diseases’ in China. Countermeasures should be taken to develop medium-sized and small cities, integrate the labor market of the city and countryside, provide necessary public services, social security and vocational training, guide the rural migrant workers to return rationally, and help the new generation live in harmony with urban residents.

Theory,Demonstration and Methods: Research on Social Security of Migrant Workers by Domestic Scholar

Social security of migrant workers has been significant in dissolving social contradictions and achieving the economic and social development in China during the transitional period. The researches of domestic scholar on social security of migrant workers can be classified into three categories. Firstly, theoretical analysis on social security of migrant workers, including researches on the appeal of social security and misunderstanding of recognition, theory-construction of rural worker social security, policy defects and equity construction in social security system of migrant workers. Secondly, real studies on social security of migrant workers, including researches on sequence of demand and influencing factors of social security of migrant workers as well as intrinsic motivation forming the perspective on social security. Lastly, road exploration of establishing social security system, including researches on the multi-level development of rural worker social security system, comparison of "Double-low method", "Guangdong Method" and "Shanghai Method" of the social security of migrant workers in Zhejiang Province and establishing multi-level social security system according to the hierarchy after the internal differentiation.

Economic Analysis and Countermeasures of Migrant Workers' Problems

Generation and development of migrant workers' problems are analyzed from the perspective of economics. There are economic factors causing migrant workers' problems: imbalance in the industrial structure brings farmers living pressure; urban modern civilization is attractive to farmers; urban economic development needs a large number of agricultural laborers engaged in manual labor. Moreover, relevant countermeasures are proposed. The dual economic structure is to be broken to gradually eliminate the barrier between urban and rural areas; an unified and standard labor market is to be established to narrow the gap between urban and rural areas; overall considerations should be taken and the reform of matching system should be quickened; the construction of urbanization is to be duly promoted to improve the level of modernization in the countryside.

The Status Quo, Dilemma and Path Innovation of the Citizenization of the New Generation of Migrant Workers

The citizenization of the new generation of migrant workers is the only way to promote China’s urbanization.Based on the development status of the new generation of migrant workers,this paper summarizes the difficulties encountered in the four aspects of employment,housing,social security and the education of migrant workers'children in the process of citizenization,finally explores four innovative ways of citizenization of the new generation of migrant workers,such as,strengthening vocational skills training to improve the employment quality of the new generation of migrant workers,improving the housing security mechanism to ensure that they have a place to live,improving the social security system to safeguard that they can be treated for their illnesses and the elderly,improving the distribution of educational resources to promote fair education for the children of them.

Intestinal parasitic infections and risk factors among Myanmar migrant workers in northeast Thailand

Objective:To determine the prevalence and associated factors of intestinal parasitic infections in migrant workers in Nakhon Ratchasima Province,Northeast Thailand.Methods:A cross-sectional study was conducted from August 2017 to July 2018 in 600 Myanmar migrant workers.Questionnaires were employed for collecting the demographic data of participants.Stool samples were collected and examined using the formalinether concentration technique.Risk factors for intestinal parasitic infections were determined using multiple logistic regressions analyses.Results:The overall infection rate of intestinal parasitic infections was 27.67%(166/600).Among the intestinal helminthes observed,hookworm was most abundant(8.67%)followed by Trichuris trichiura(8.50%),Opisthorchis viverrini(4.17%),Ascaris lumbricoides(1.50%),Strogyloides stercoralis(1.17%)and Hymenolepis nana(0.5%).Meanwhile,Entamoeba coli was the most prevalent intestinal protozoa(4.33%,26/600)followed by Endolimax nana(1.33%),Entamoeba histolytica complex(1.17%),Blastocystis sp.(1.0%)and Giardia duodenalis(0.17%).The study found significant associations between gender and Strogyloides stercoralis infection(ORadj=5.61,95%CI=1.18–26.70,P=0.03),workers aged 30 years old were likely to have a lower risk of the T.trichiura infection(ORadj=0.45,95%CI=0.23–0.89).Moreover,the history of consuming raw or undercooked cyprinoid fish was a risk factor of Opisthorchis viverrini infection(ORadj=2.82,95%CI=1.22–6.49,P=0.015).Conclusions:There remains a high prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among Myanmar migrant workers in the study area and therefore health screenings for all migrant workers in Thailand are required.

Investigation and Study on Employment Status of Migrant Workers in Heilongjiang Province

With the gradual acceleration of urbanization speed and continuous improvements of agricultural productivity, the number of migrant workers is increasing. The living conditions of this group in cities determine the quality of urbanization in China, and are of great and far-reaching significance to Chinese construction of comprehensive well-off society. This study took the migrant workers in Heilongjiang Province as the research object, and took the representative new-generation migrant workers as the respondent to have a comprehensive analysis of the employment status. The study focused on these aspects, such as nature information, employment selection, employment quality, and social security, etc. Finally, it provided valuable ideas and methods on the reasonable solutions of the employment problems of the migrant workers to better increase farmers＇ income and improve their living qualities.

Educational divergence among urban residents and migrant workers: Evidence from China

While the Harris-Todaro model is a traditional approach used in researching the urban-rural dichotomy,it fails to explain families’goals to maximize their current utility in terms of intertemporal decision-making con‐ditions.To fill this gap,in this paper,an urban-rural dichotomy model involving labor migration and educa‐tion is established,in which it is assumed that family utility derives from consumption and children’s educa‐tional achievement.The steady-state path derived through the Bellman equation suggests that increasing edu‐cational investment and family education intensity leads to a significant urban-rural difference in children’s educational achievement.Compared with the traditional Harris-Todaro model,the transversality condition is loosened in this model,while the unavailability of loans constrains migrant families.Four hypotheses are made and tested using an empirical study.An ordinary least squares regression was used in the analysis,but due to the endogeneity caused by missing variables,the instrumental variable method and two-stage least squares regression were used.The results demonstrate that the household registration system can explain 44.5%of the educational achievement difference,and the initial difference is inflated 4.73 times after nine years of compulsory education.This divergence could increase the differences caused by household registra‐tion status,resulting in larger income gaps and intergenerational heredity of identities.

Willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses: A case study of 45 villages in Henan Province, China

The willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses has an important impact on local urbanization.At present,there are few researches on the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.The existing researches mostly focus on the perspective of sociology and economics,and few studies are conducted from the perspective of geography.Based on the survey data of 45 villages in Henan Province of China in 2019,this study used binary logistic method to study the influencing factors of the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.The willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses is affected by many factors,such as personal,family,village,and returning factors.Among them,age and returning period are negatively correlated with the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.Factors such as years of education,years of working,and per capita income of village are positively correlated with the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.Returning migrant workers in plains and hilly areas are more willing to purchase houses than those in mountainous areas.The formation of the willingness to purchase houses is mainly related to economic foundation,age,marital status,and other factors.Returning migrant workers are becoming more willing to purchase houses,and the expected locations are mainly concentrated in the county seats.In the context of China’s high density of rural population and rapid urbanization,more returning migrant workers are expected to purchase houses in cities and towns for the sake of employment,marriage,children’s education,and access to public services.As a result,there is an extensive market of potential purchasers,which affects the development of the local urban real estate industry and is of great significance for returning migrant workers to truly integrate into the cities.However,some returning migrant workers still choose to purchase houses in villages,mainly affected by traditional concepts,living habits,and the better development of villages.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to explore the willingness of returning migrant workers to purchase houses,so as to master the flow laws and future behavior of returning migrant workers to purchase houses.

China's Migrant Workers' Social Security

Based on the definition of migrant workers and migrant workers'social security,systems,policies and regulations and status quo of specific safeguard project of social security have been analyzed.Authors draw following conclusions:China's social security systems of migrant workers show diversification and differentiation trend;national-level policies take on diversification and local-level regulations take on differentiation;social welfare and social assistance have deficiency;coverage rate of social insurance items is extremely low.

Industrial Upgrade,Vocational Ability and Migrant Worker Education and Training

Economic structure adjustment,industrial upgrade,and demands of migrant workers for vocational ability are direct driving factors for migrant workers participating in education and training.Personal quality of migrant workers not only concerns their survival and development,but also concerns upgrade of modern industrial structure.From the perspective of industrial upgrade,vocational ability and mechanism of migrant worker education and training,this paper analyzes difficulties in migrant worker education and training.On the basis of the difficulties,it come up with some strategies and recommendations.

How Urban Public Service Affects the Well-Being of Migrant Workers:An Empirical Analysis Based on the Theoretical Perspective of Social Comparison Theory

Government city management is facing higher requirements with the development of the number of migrant workers.Therefore,improving their subjective well-being is a significant practical problem that the government must consider in public governance.This research discusses the influence of public service satisfaction on the well-being of urban migrant workers from the perspective of social comparison theory and the role of the sense of social equity and social conflict in the process of this influence.Using the structural equation modeling and moderated mediating mechanism analysis,the results show that:(1)the satisfaction of social and economic public service significantly and positively affects subjective well-being.(2)The sense of social equity completely mediated the influence of the satisfaction of public social service on well-being and partly mediated the influence of the satisfaction of public financial service on well-being.(3)The sense of social equity and conflict have a moderated mediating effect for social and economic public service satisfaction on well-being.Finally,the article concludes with some suggestions to improve the well-being of migrant workers based on the conclusion of the study.

Study on the Distribution of Migrant Workers＇ Employment Destinations A Case Study of Henan Province, China

The choice of employment destination is the basis of migrant workers＇ spatial flow, the study on the choice of employment destination is helpful to understand the spatial law of migrant workers＇ flow from a micro perspective. Through the case study on 11 sample villages generated by the random stratified sampling in Henan Province, authors of this paper find that the distribution of destinations is dispersed in a large area while concentrated in certain places. Most of the destinations are in counties and outside Henan Province. Migrant workers are mainly concentrated in the economically more developed eastern provinces. The central, though a big source of migrant workers, has not formed a core employment area for migrant workers. The main factors influencing migrant workers＇ choice of employment distances include age, family size, per capita arable land, the village＇s economic development level, the village terrain, transportation, its distance from the nearest city, and workers＇ relationship networks. From the perspective of employment destinations, on a provincial scale, the employment attraction coefficient based on the destination＇s level of economic development and the employment distance, efficiently explains farmers＇ choice of destinations, that is, destinations with a more developed economy and a shorter employment distance are the top choice for migrant workers.

The Effects of Uncertainty Risks on Consumption of Migrant Workers under the Economic New Normal

Based on the precautionary theory,this paper established a framework for consumption of migrant workers from the perspective of the uncertainty risk,and analyzed the effects of uncertain income risk on consumption of migrant workers using the quantile regression method.Results indicated that the income uncertainty significantly inhibits the consumption of migrant workers. The lower the consumption level or the lower the income level,the stronger the inhibitory effect will be. Uncertainty of expenditure also has a significant inhibitory effect on the consumption of migrant workers. Promoting urbanization of migrant workers and accelerating the reform of the household registration system can reduce the uncertainty risks faced by migrant workers,so as to raise the consumption expectation of migrant workers,release the consumption potential of migrant workers,and improve the living standards of migrant workers.

Analysis of International Migrant Workers： Case Study of Worker of Madura Origin

As international migrant workers, they should equip themselves with appropriate knowledge and skills to compete with other overseas workers in the global job market. This means that international migrant workers need to improve their quality and ability. In addition, it also requires a high work and motivation to produce a satisfactory performance. Capabilities like cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities are needed to support performance Information related to three abilities also motivation is important from international migrant workers from the island of Madura to be analyzed. Based on the results of qualitative research using interview technique and observation on three informants who had worked abroad as nursing, baby sitter, and housekeeper whose data validity of interview result is measured using triangulation method, it shows different ability in working on his job （though having the same motivation） resulted different performance. Low performance due to lack of ability in cognitive, affective, and psychomotor aspects resulted in workers who could not compete with other workers. The evidence came from the lack of contract extension for low-performing workers. It is therefore recommended for prospective international migrant workers to equip themselves with sufficient capacity through trainings undertaken by government training center （Balai Latihan Kerja/BLK）

Problems in Post-crisis Employment for Migrant Workers Remain Unsolved

As indicated by a survey of 105 villages in 19 provinces and cities, the 2008 international financial crisis had a serious impact on migrant workers＇ employment, which is prominently manifested in their earlier return to their hometowns, the dismissal of 20 percent of migrant workers from their jobs and a considerable decline in their wages. Thanks to a series of policies the state adopted to ensure growth and expand consumption, migrant workers soon got re-employed. However, some deep-rooted problems surrounding the issue of migrant workers＇ empoyment came to light as a result of this crisis. These problems need to be solved on an urgent basis, though it will involve a considerable amount of hard work over an extended period of time. While this will require a combination of transitional measures and long-range strategies, the employment of migrant workers should also be incorporated as a fundamental part of the undertaking to ensure economic growth, adjusting the industrial structure, transforming the development mode and pushing forward with the reform.

Study on the Rual Migrant Workers＇ Willingness to Have Urban Hukou and the Choice of Urbanization Path of China in Recent Years

Based on the empirically analysis of the data from a nationwide survey in 2010 in China, the study found. （1） The overwhelming majority of rural migrant workers in China were not willing to convert their rural household registration （nongye hukou） to an urban or non-rural registration Orei nong hukou）. If they were required to return the rural land contract rights as precondition, only lOper cent were willing to be urban citizens. （2） For the small proportion of migrant workers who were willing to convert their rural household registration to urban household registration, ＇obtaining access to better education and more opportunities for the continuation of education for their children＇ is the major incentive. （3） The primary reason for retaining a rural hukou, on the other hand, is to keep their rural contract land. （4） Finally, there is no significant difference between the rural migrant workers who were born before 1980 and those after 1980, in term of the attitude toward converting rural hukou to urban hukou. The policy recommendations drew from the findings are as follows： 1） In order to promote the urbanization process, the government should choose the path of ＇urbanization based on the long term residence in the towns and cities＇ instead of the path of ＂urbanization based on household registration ＇. 2） The rural migrant workers should be converted into urban citizens without being forced to give up their contact land. 3） The government should give equal weight in policy making to the migrant workers born before 1980 and those born after 1980. Therefore, the policy emphasis of deepening the urbanization of China should focus on the ＇equalization of the resource allocation of the public services and social welfare＂ while the characteristics of the separation of the household registration system should not be strengthened any longer.