YE Yumin, MA Guodong: Promoting the Urbanization of Migrant Agricultural Populations to Advance Chinese Modernization

Promoting the urbanization of migrant agricultural populations in a high-quality manner is the primary task of new-type urbanization and an essential step toward achieving Chinese Modernization with its massive population scale. This process requires aligning with China’s basic national conditions and development pathways, while adhering to the principle of pursuing progress with stability, moving step by step, and advancing continuously.

The urbanization of migrant agricultural populations at the county level is a crucial component of this process. The main task of county-level urbanization is to address shortcomings in healthcare, basic education, municipal facilities, living environments, and employment quality. The goal is to enable migrant agricultural populations in counties to “settle down” by accessing basic public services and building health capital; “grow stronger” by receiving continuous and diversified training to accumulate intellectual capital; and “integrate” by actively participating in social governance to build social capital. This ensures not only spatial mobility, from the countryside to the city, but also social mobility, from the margins to the middle-income group.

The main pathways to county-level urbanization of migrant agricultural populations are:

Optimizing fiscal transfer mechanisms to improve county-level public services and infrastructure.

Consolidating county-level industrial foundations to strengthen the accumulation of human capital among migrant agricultural populations.

Improving governance capacity at the county level to enhance the protection of urban rights for migrant agricultural populations.

Respecting the developmental patterns of county towns and advancing urbanization in a region-specific, type-specific, and priority-focused manner.

(The above viewpoints are adapted from the article “Promoting High-Quality County-Level Urbanization of Migrant Agricultural Populations” published in Guangming Daily by YE Yumin, Research Fellow at the National Academy of Development and Strategy and Professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, and MA Guodong, PhD candidate at the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China.)

Original article link: [Guangming Daily]YE Yumin, MA Guodong: Promoting High-Quality County-Level Urbanization of Migrant Agricultural Populations.

Translator: ZHANG Yuqing

Web Editor: ZHANG Jingjing