Serving Migrant Workers: A Challenging Public Service Issue in China (服务农民工：中国公共服务的挑战)1

Abstract

The results of the latest census disclose that there are more than 260 million mobile people among the total population of 1.34 billion in China. Among them, about 150 million are migrant workers. Due to the notorious household registration system (hukou) and the entrenched rural‐urban divide, access by migrant workers to public services provided by city governments is normally denied. Compared with their urban counterparts, migrant workers find it difficult to gain equal access to employment, social security and other public services. Though the central government has promised to provide public services to migrant workers, including employment services and training, compulsory education for their children, disease prevention and control, and improvement in housing conditions, providing public services to migrant workers poses a big challenge for both receiving and sending regions. Based on a survey of migrant workers and government officials conducted in 2009 in Guangzhou, one of the key receiving cities of migrant workers, this article examines migrant workers’ needs for, and knowledge of, public services. It also reviews current policy responses and service provision mechanisms of both the receiving and sending regions, and tries to evaluate the gap between the service needs of migrant workers and governments’ provision of services, and to explore more effective ways to satisfy needs through enhanced cooperation and coordination among government departments and non‐governmental organisations.中国最新的人口普查结果显示，在13.4亿总人口中，流动人口高达2.6亿，其中，跨区域流动的农民工达到1.5亿。由于长期存在的城乡差距，特别是户籍制度的影响，农民工在城市中很难享受到诸如就业、社会保障等公共服务。虽然中央政府已经承诺为农民工提供各项公共服务，如就业服务和职业培训，子女义务教育，疾病预防与控制，住房改善等，但是，无论是对输入地还是输出地来说，如何为农民工提供公共服务一直是一个重大的公共政策挑战。基于2009年在广州针对农民工、政府官员的一项问卷调查，本文尝试了解农民工的服务需要及其对城市公共服务的认知情况，梳理输出地与输入地的政策回应及服务提供机制，评估农民工的公共服务需要与政府服务提供之间的差距，并且在此基础上探索如何通过加强输入地与输出地政府部门之间、非政府组织之间及政府部门与非政府部门之间的沟通与协调来寻找满足农民工服务需要的更有效的方法。