The citizenization of migrant workers is as important as rural development.

Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, the economy has developed rapidly, which has fundamentally broken the stereotype about "rural people". In recent years, rural areas and cities have sought new changes one after another. According to Lu Huilin, an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Peking University, the accumulation and outbreak of "non-self" emotions in rural groups is a great challenge to social construction.

Behind "Rural people have no quality" is the problem of system.

China Youth Daily: nowadays, exchanges between urban and rural areas are more frequent, but the misunderstandings and estrangement between urban and rural areas do not seem to be reduced. Why?

Lu Huilin: reform and opening up have indeed loosened the barriers between urban and rural areas, but the stereotype of urban people to rural people has not been fundamentally changed. First, although the opportunities and frequency of communication have increased, there is a lack of substantive interaction between urban and rural people. We may accept the services of migrant workers in our daily life, but these are very shallow exchanges and can not promote mutual understanding. But I think it's relatively easy to change.

The fundamental reason is actually the dual division system between urban and rural areas. Under the existing household registration system, although rural people can go to the city to work, they cannot become urban people, because the existing system does not allow him to settle and live in the city for a long time. In our impression, migrant workers always squeeze onto buses and subways with bedding and large and small bags on their backs. In the face of this situation, urban people may look at them in an alternative way and feel that rural people have no quality. But what's the reason behind it? It is not the quality of the rural people, but the system. If the system does not allow them to settle in the workplace, these people will not be able to have the urban way of life.

China Youth Daily: "Rural people should adapt to the life style of urban people". Does this mean that urban people dominate the discourse system?

Lu Huilin: the cultural gap between urban and rural areas has further expanded in recent years, so that the countryside has gradually lost its place in the cultural system. Looking at today's TV programs and mainstream magazines, rural themes either do not appear, or become the object of ridicule, losing their own value. Under this influence, rural people gradually can not find their own value, lose their subjectivity, and take the pursuit of urban values and urban way of life as their life goal. With the intensification of the differentiation between urban and rural areas, the marginalization of rural cultural values is becoming more and more obvious. The loss of rural people's right to speak is related to the trend of social changes in China as a whole.

Only a stable and high-quality labor force can ensure that our country will move towards the creative era.

China Youth Daily: what are the consequences of rural people losing their subjectivity?

Lu Huilin: farmers and migrant workers are already vulnerable groups. If they are still excluded and looked down upon, their subjectivity will be further lost. Today, the goal of many rural people is to be "non-self". They teach their children, "if you don't study hard, you will be like me in the future." This is an obvious emotion of "self-negation".

On the one hand, this emotion will slowly accumulate and gather; on the other hand, their wishes can not be really realized in reality. The interaction between the two can create great tension. Some migrants feel ostracism for a long time, but they usually do not have an attack. However, in the event of an emergency, this emotion may gather and break out, which is a great challenge to the construction of a harmonious society.

China Youth Daily: how to resolve the estrangement between urban and rural areas and its social tension?

Lu Huilin: first, the government should change the purely urban-centered concept of development and tilt financial investment to rural areas. Beautiful villages should be built on the improvement of rural living standards. With the substantial improvement of living standards, rural areas can gradually become homes where rural people are willing to live, rather than abandoned land that they have fled one after another.

Second, for rural people who have gone to work in cities and want to become citizens, the state should take measures to make them live and work in peace and contentment, whether it is housing, medical care or education, they should be given equal treatment as citizens. At present, China is in the development model of the factory of the world, and it can not change its disadvantageous position in the global industrial chain for a long time, but even so, there is still some room to improve the situation of workers. It depends on the strength of Chinese workers and the government's determination to protect workers' rights and interests.

Under realistic conditions, we must seriously deal with the problem of migrant workers and endow them with urgent necessity. If a stable and high-quality labor force is not formed, it is impossible for China to upgrade its industry, step out of the world factory and move towards Chinese creation. Therefore, I think that the citizenization of migrant workers is as important as rural development.