Is it easier to settle down? Is a new round of human resource competition starting?, Settling down to welcome the new policy in Guangzhou, China
When it comes to mega cities in China, people often blurt out the words "Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen". These cities are not only large, but also make many people immediately think of the difficulty of obtaining household registration. However, last week Guangzhou issued a notice soliciting opinions on the "Guangzhou Differentiated Management Measures for Moving in from Outside the City". According to the draft for soliciting opinions, those who are 28 years old and below, have continuously paid social insurance for 12 months, and have a full-time college degree can enter the seven non core areas of Guangzhou. Although it is a non core area, after all, the threshold is not high enough to enter Guangzhou. This draft for soliciting opinions immediately sparked heated discussions, and coupled with recent actions in Zhejiang, it has become very common to enter cities outside the core area of Hangzhou. This makes people wonder whether this is the beginning of a new round of competition for talent? What is behind the fact that settling down has become easier? Newsweek's focus this week is on settling down and settling down.
Lin Junbiao, 25 years old, is a skilled worker responsible for debugging equipment at an electronic audio company in Guangzhou. After graduating from a vocational school in Huadu, Guangzhou in 2019, he started working at the company.
Equipment operation and maintenance engineer Lin Junbiao: My major in university is IoT application technology. At the beginning of my internship, I came to Baolong in Guangzhou. The large-scale manufacturing industry in Baolong is in line with my major. I basically graduated from Guangzhou and started working directly nearby.
Due to the fact that most of the students stayed on campus during their school years, they did not have much emotional attachment to this city. However, the four years of work and life after graduation allowed him to fully understand this city, and Lin Junbiao fell in love with it.
Although living in Guangzhou makes Lin Junbiao feel very comfortable, due to the company's annual limit of 5 household registration quotas and the age for family marriage reminders, he can only decide to return to his hometown of Shanwei, Guangdong at the end of the year after considering his future life.
Equipment operation and maintenance engineer Lin Junbiao: Our company has a large number of people, with several thousand people. It may be my turn to be around 40 years old.
The current household registration policy in Guangzhou, apart from education and professional titles, most people choose to settle in points. However, due to a series of requirements such as under 45 years old, having completed 4 years of social security, and having a total score of 150 points, it is not easy for many people to meet these requirements.
On Monday of this week, Lin Junbiao saw a news article about soliciting opinions on differentiated Guangzhou household relocation, which changed his mind as he had no hope of staying in Guangzhou.
Equipment operation and maintenance engineer Lin Junbiao: I have also seen it before. Its points can be added to households, such as age, education, social security, and public welfare time, which is very difficult. The conditions on my end are met, and I will definitely apply to try my best to obtain the policies after landing.
According to the "Management Measures for Differentiated Entry of Households from Outside the City in Guangzhou", individuals under the age of 28, who have continuously paid social insurance for at least 12 months, and have a full-time college degree are eligible to enter households in seven districts of Guangzhou. Huang Shiding, a researcher at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences who has long been concerned about urban household policies, has his own understanding of why the age is set to under 28 years old and the threshold for educational qualifications is lowered, which is different from the current household entry standards.
Huang Shiding, a researcher at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences, said that paying social security for one year is one of the most basic aspects of public service popularization. For age requirements, the average age in Guangzhou is relatively young compared to the overall average age in China. However, for an innovative city, this age structure is still relatively large and requires further reduction in the average age.
The industrial structure and talent demand are the main directions of Huangshi Ding's research. Therefore, regarding the government's release of relevant policies in the same direction as his research, he continued to sort them out this Friday while on vacation at home. The differentiated household registration management method was proposed as early as 2020, and has been proposed every year since then. At the end of 2022, the Guangzhou Municipal Government issued the "Guangzhou Labor Force Factor Marketization Allocation Reform Action Plan", which mentioned that "Guangzhou needs to accelerate the reform and innovation of the household registration system and introduce and implement differentiated household registration policies.".
Researcher Huang Shiding from Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences: As we all know, China's population has been declining since last year, and there is a negative correlation between economic development and birth rate. The faster the economy develops, the faster the birth rate drops. The future of a country is pinned on young people, because the reduction of young people poses a significant bottleneck to the economic development of a country and a region.
Huangshi Ding has noticed that the permanent population of Guangzhou will experience negative growth in 2022. In May of this year, the Guangzhou Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security released the "Top 30 Occupations in Guangzhou with Demand Greater than Job Seeking" in the First Quarter of 2023. Among other production, manufacturing, and related personnel, skilled workers similar to Lin Junbiao were particularly in short supply.
Huang Shiding, a researcher at the Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences: Since the reform and opening up 40 years ago, Guangzhou has always been the city with the most concentrated migrant workers in China, which has also made it a first-class city in China. Nowadays, more comparison is made between advanced manufacturing and future industries. The talents or main labor force needed by these industries are definitely skilled talents, which will be very different from the migrant workers in the past.
Huang Shiding stated that the fixed scope of household registration in the seven districts of Guangzhou is due to the fact that the peripheral urban areas carry many traditional and high-tech manufacturing industries in Guangzhou, and there is a high demand for young labor force, especially young skilled talents. Compared to the central urban area with an urbanization rate of 100%, the peripheral urban area has a greater carrying capacity. Its lower cost of living also makes it easier for young people from other places to settle down. The shortage of talent demand can also provide young people with greater growth opportunities.
Will people be willing to come after the introduction of household registration policies?
Behind the introduction of the new household registration policy in Guangzhou is the year-on-year decrease of over 70000 permanent residents in Guangzhou last year. Although the four major first tier cities in China are facing negative growth in permanent population in 2022, it is rare for Guangzhou, which has been experiencing continuous growth in permanent population for the past two decades. Therefore, in this policy adjustment, many people analyze that Guangzhou is targeting industrial workers because it is a manufacturing hub. And last week, Zhejiang, which announced the relaxation of household registration policies, aimed to transfer agricultural workers to cities. However, with the policy in place, are people willing to come? What other practical considerations are there?
Migrant workers have contributed sweat and youth to urban construction, but most of them have not obtained the registered residence of the city where they work. So, if a city lifts restrictions on household registration, will it trigger a surge in the enthusiasm of migrant workers to settle down? Will it trigger a large influx of rural population? With such doubts in mind, Wang Ping, a researcher at the Anhui Migrant Workers Research Center, conducted a sampling survey among Anhui migrant workers, and the conclusion she came up with was unexpected: only one sixth of the respondents were willing to settle in the city.
Wang Ping, Associate Professor at Fuyang Normal University, Anhui Migrant Workers Research Center: At least from our small sample analysis, after knowing such a policy, the proportion of migrant workers expressing strong willingness to settle down is not significant. Several interviewees all said one thing: no matter how good the city is, it's not my home. He has been working in this place for most of his life, but he hasn't strongly stated that this place is my home yet. To take root in this place and become a new citizen, he still feels the need to go back to his own home.
32 year old He Hai is a worker from Anhui. He has been working in this logistics park in Huzhou, Zhejiang for 7 years and has become the safety manager of the park. His career has been somewhat successful, but due to the temporary inability to buy a house and the increasing employment opportunities in his hometown, he has no plans to settle down in Huzhou.
Anhui migrant worker He Hai: I also want to buy a house here, but the housing prices here are currently not allowed by the current conditions. The prices are a bit high, and our family's financial support is limited. Moreover, the economic development and construction aspects of our hometown are almost the same, and the salary is basically the same. I plan to work here for a few more years before moving to my hometown.
The new generation of migrant workers value development more, while the old generation of migrant workers value returning to their roots more. Wang Yuliang comes from Henan, and at the age of over fifty, there are not many years left for him to work outside. The homestead, farmland, elderly people, wife and children in his hometown are all calling for him to return to his old age.
Wang Yuliang, a migrant worker from Henan Province: If you want to go back to your hometown, there are old people and children at home, so you must go home. If this place can't work, we can continue to work as long as we can. If we can't work, we can go back to go home.
Settling in the city means higher consumer spending and a better level of medical education, which naturally has a strong appeal to migrant workers. Among his colleagues, Fan Yawei is one of the few who firmly hopes to settle down in the city. His main purpose of settling down is to send his children to Huzhou for school.
Henan migrant worker Fan Yawei: After having children, I think it's best to bring them here for education. The policy at that time was not allowed. It required buying a house and implementing a point system. I have been saving money since 2013, just to buy a house here and bring my child to school.
Buying a house and paying social security are the two main ways for migrant workers to settle in Huzhou. However, since neither of these methods meets the standards, Fan Yawei has not been able to settle down. Last week, Zhejiang Province announced a new policy to relax household registration, except for the urban area of Hangzhou. The province has completely lifted household registration restrictions and implemented a system of registering household registration based on the place of habitual residence, implementing legal and stable household registration, and ensuring that the standards for rural migrant workers from other regions and local areas to settle in cities are unified. Although the specific details have not been announced yet, Fan Yawei feels that he is not far from settling down.
This new policy, which is almost zero threshold for household registration, is aimed at attracting rural workers who have stable employment and living in urban areas to move their families to the city, thereby increasing the urbanization rate. In response to the concerns of many migrant workers who are reluctant to leave their rural household registration, the new policy in Zhejiang Province also proposes to protect the rural land contracting rights, homestead land use rights, and collective income distribution rights of farmers who settle in cities in accordance with the law, and not to use the withdrawal of these rights as a condition for farmers to settle in cities.
Wang Ping, associate professor of Fuyang Normal University of Anhui Migrant Workers Research Center, said that after the villagers' registered residence has been moved out, their identity rights and interests of collective benefits will not be deprived, and they will be protected by the system. If there are regulations from the higher authorities, it is necessary to further refine this indicator in the following operations. The more specific the policy, the fewer disputes and issues may arise in the end.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, at the end of 2022, there were 130 million migrant workers living in urban areas in China, indicating that they are an important force for future urban settlement. However, in addition to lowering the threshold for household registration, it is equally important to improve their living standards after settling in. Can I apply for public rental housing if I can't afford a house? Can children enjoy good educational resources? Can one receive a retirement pension in old age? In all aspects, it determines the willingness of migrant workers to settle down and also tests the value of future urbanization rates.
Wang Ping, Associate Professor of Fuyang Normal University at Anhui Migrant Workers Research Center: Migrant workers did not accumulate social security funds in the city in the early stage. In some places now, if they can pay for 15 years of pension insurance, it is equivalent to participating in the insurance for 15 years. This method is somewhat innovative. I can receive my pension security fund, which can solve some of the income problems in the elderly and improve the quality of life of the urban migrant population after retirement.
Can basic public services be basically solved behind the adjustment of household registration policies?
In the old saying of Chinese people, it is often said that settling down is the only way to consider settling down. However, this time the policy of settling down has taken the lead and the threshold has been relaxed. However, many people still focus on settling down, which includes many issues such as education, healthcare, and housing. For many Chinese parents, having a smaller housing and a longer commute may be enough to overcome the problem. As long as their children can receive the best education security, can basic public services such as education and healthcare be basically solved behind the adjustment of household registration policies?
Since the beginning of this year, many regions such as Guangdong and Zhejiang have further relaxed their household registration policies. The reason why the reduction of household registration threshold in the eastern region has received widespread attention is that household registration means that more public service resources can be enjoyed locally.
Ren Yong, Dean of the School of Government Management of East China University of Political Science and Law: The registered residence system was essentially accompanied by a lot of public welfare and public services in the initial system design process, but China's reform and opening up to a large extent is the process of population mobility, so doing this reform will enable those who go to the economically developed areas in the east to engage in employment and entrepreneurship to enjoy a better level of public services, and avoid registered residence becoming an obstacle to their employment and entrepreneurship.
In recent years, public services are gradually covering non registered residence permanent residents, but the coverage is different. In the "14th Five Year Plan" for public services issued last year, there was a distinction between "basic" and "non basic" categories of public services: basic public services such as compulsory education and healthcare need to promote equalization; Non basic public services such as inclusive childcare and high school education need to be expanded in supply.
Ren Yong, Dean of the School of Government Management at East China University of Political Science and Law: In terms of basic public service supply, the most typical type of education is compulsory education. However, in addition to basic public services, there are also some non basic public services. Non basic public services include high school education, and the difficulty of the college entrance examination varies from province to province. To a certain extent, education resources, especially the imbalance of non basic public service resources, should be taken seriously.
Ren Yong believes that in the long run, it is necessary for various regions to achieve a more balanced and reasonable guarantee of non basic public services. In the new household registration policy introduced in Zhejiang last week, it was proposed to explore the establishment of a middle and high school entrance examination registration system based on the enrollment status and continuous education years in the destination area, which has also received attention. It can be said that education, as a public service, has become an important factor for many people to choose whether to settle down or not.
Similarly, as a non registered residence resident, parents whose children are about to take the college entrance examination pay more attention to the settlement than those whose children are still in the compulsory education stage. But even though compulsory education is a basic public service that needs to be equalized, the local community has also gone through a process of gradual improvement.
Zhili Town, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, is an important clothing industry town located in the Yangtze River Delta, which has attracted 350000 migrant workers to live here. However, the town's registered residence is only 100000, accounting for less than a quarter of the permanent population. If only registered residence is used to allocate public service resources such as education and medical care, a large number of non registered residence permanent population will not be guaranteed.
Ren Yong, Dean of the School of Government Management at East China University of Political Science and Law: The local population and migrant population in this area are an inverted whole, and an important aspect of this iterative process is to handle the relationship between local residents and new citizens well, and to handle the issue of service supply between the two.
More consideration should be given to allocating public service resources based on the permanent population, which has become the direction of Zhili Town's efforts. In the eastern region, there are many similar industrial towns, and the suburbs and surrounding towns of large cities are often the first foothold for migrant populations. How to improve the public service supply for permanent residents has become a must answer question for population influx areas. But building public resources that cover all permanent residents as much as possible also tests the ability of financial investment.
