Promoting Universal Coverage of Basic Public Services Among Urban Residents

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In 2012, China’s urbanization rate reached 52.57 % but, if we counted only people with urban hukous, this was only 35.29 %; there were 263 million migrant workers in China, where they have already been playing a leading role in urbanization. Nonetheless, governments are still managing applications for new permanent urban residents’ registration, demanded by rural migrant workers, by using the long-established hukou-based public service policies. This has constituted a big obstacle to the citizenization of rural migrant workers in China, caused a great deal of problems with urban management, and is contrary to social justice. In 2013, it was made clear in the Report on the Work of the Government that relevant authorities should accelerate reform of the household registration system and related institutions; that they should register eligible rural workers as permanent urban residents in an orderly manner, “progressively expand the coverage of basic public services in urban areas to include all their permanent residents and create an equitable institutional environment for freedom of movement and for people to live and work in contentment.” Accordingly, in order to protect the rights of migrants and improve the quality of the process of social urbanization in China, the most significant tasks involve investigating the current status of basic public services in Chinese towns and cities, especially the public services provided for potential new permanent migrant worker residents, and exploring methods to expand the coverage of these basic public services in urban areas to all their permanent residents.