How to welcome the arrival of the "era of family mobility"?

The arrival of the "era of family mobility" shows that the process of urbanization in China has developed to an in-depth stage. It can be predicted that in the next long period of time, the size of the family floating population will increase, in view of such a large number of rural families flocking to the city, whether it is top-level design or urban management, should be given enough attention.

Behind a piece of data, it may indicate the arrival of an era. A few days ago, the National Health and Family Planning Commission released the "China floating population Development report 2016", the report shows that during the "12th five-year Plan" period, the proportion of family migrant workers in all migrant workers continued to increase rapidly. The dynamic monitoring data of the National Health and Family Planning Commission show that nearly 90% of the married new generation floating population flows together with husband and wife, and about 60% of them flow with their spouses and children, and more and more mobile families begin to carry the elderly. This shows that China's population migration has entered a stage characterized by family migration.

The rural floating population shows the trend of family migration, and the reason can be divided into two parts: first, the attraction of urbanization and industrialization to farmers continues to strengthen. Higher income and richer life in cities are the key factors to attract people to come out of the countryside. The reason for the phenomenon of "dragging families and families together" is that, in addition to the reasons why farmers who go out begin to pay attention to the quality of life, what is more important is that these migrant people no longer take the countryside as a way to retreat like a generation of migrant workers. but are more likely to give their future to the city; on the other hand, family mobility is also a helpless move. The rural labor force goes out to create a large number of left-behind children and the left-behind elderly, resulting in a variety of social problems emerge in endlessly. In some villages, with the continuous outflow of population, it has already been "hollowed out", leaving family members, especially children, with limited space for development in their hometown. Therefore, even if the living conditions in the city are limited, keeping their families around is the best choice for many farmers who go out.

Family-based flow has a lot of practical positive significance. Compared with the great impact of the labor force going out on the rural social structure in recent years, the improvement of the degree of familiarization of the floating population is conducive to preserving the relative integrity of the rural family and directly reducing the phenomenon of long-term separation within the floating population family. thus, it can reduce the left-behind children and the elderly, make up for the lack of family affection, and have a positive impact on the construction of the whole social governance.

However, the reason why it is called "family mobility" rather than "family settlement" is that most of these families are not really integrated into the city. Although their families live in cities and work in the secondary and tertiary industries, they have not taken root, so they are still in an unstable state of mobility.

So when we walk in the streets of the city, we often see such a scene: a family of three from the countryside runs a small store together, adults are busy with business, and children play in the street instead of receiving formal education in kindergarten. We also often notice that in the distribution market of a city, children of different ages from the countryside gather together to form a new "mini-city village" gathering community; or in the seemingly disorderly and low-cluttered buildings next to high-rise buildings, migrant workers who are engaged in manual labor bring out a pot of vegetables and sit with their families at a small table on the side of the street to eat. Although their families work hard in the city and pay hard work and sweat for the development of the city, they still live the same life as the countryside, let alone enjoy high-quality medical services in the city or bear the high rent.

The flow of population based on families is different from that of individual farmers who go to work in cities. Due to the relative integrity of family members, mobile families have more and more complex social demands. In particular, those children and the elderly who follow the labor of young and middle-aged people into the city need more protection in education, old-age care, medical care, housing and so on.

First of all, the problem of children's education is in front of mobile families. Most of the migrant farmers in their families have children. According to the China migrant Children data report-2014, as of November 2010, the number of migrant children in China has reached 35.81 million. Such a large number of migrant children grow up in cities, but it is difficult to get fair access to education in cities, which has become a major constraint for farmers to settle in cities.

The second thing that needs to be made up urgently is medical security. Among the peasant families whose families move to the cities, due to the increase in the proportion of the elderly and children, the desire to enjoy basic medical security is more urgent. However, according to the 2014 National Monitoring Survey of migrant Workers, the proportion of migrant workers participating in old-age insurance and medical insurance for urban workers is very low, only about 20%. And most of the elderly who follow their migrant children to the cities only participate in the low-level rural social endowment insurance and NCMS, which is not only a lack of security, but also very inconvenient to transfer and enjoy.

Third, the housing problem is also a major obstacle that restricts the family migrant farmers to take root in the city. According to a 2006 survey of Beijing's 1 ‰ floating population by the population and Development Research Center of Renmin University of China, 80% of the floating population live in urban villages or urban fringe villages, and 80% of them have a housing area of less than 20 square meters. In recent years, the living conditions of migrant workers have not changed significantly. With the increase of the proportion of overall family mobility, it is very common for a family, grandparents and grandchildren, to be huddled in a humble rental house. In the face of more complex problems such as children's education and medical care in mobile families, these villages scattered in the city and the villages on the edge of the city are obviously unable to bear.

In addition, the farmers and their families who move to the city need the recognition and acceptance of the urban society. If they can live in the city with dignity, they will have a sense of belonging to the city, hold the hope for life and expectations for the future, produce identity, and finally take root in the city.

Mobility is where social vitality lies. The process of urbanization is originally a process in which people continue to move from the countryside to the town and from the town to the city. " The arrival of the "era of family mobility" shows that the process of urbanization in China has developed to an in-depth stage. It can be predicted that the size of the family floating population will increase for a long time to come, and such a large number of rural families flocking to the city is also a great challenge to the ability of urban management and service. Therefore, we must make early preparations to adapt to this change, scientifically adjust the planning according to the development trend, and constantly improve the ability of basic public services and social security for floating families.

From the national level, in the face of the trend of large-scale family mobility, we should also pay more attention to the universal problems, and formulate more fine and targeted policies and measures. in order to provide support for the smooth "urbanization" of peasant families from the top-level design.