Step out of the binary structure: Research on Farmers' Employment and Entrepreneurship: Research on Farmers' Employment and Entrepreneurship

Author: Deng Hongxun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-05-01
Features: To date, nearly 100 million rural laborers across the country have participated in the large-scale transfer through cross-regional mobility and urban labor migration, infiltrating various industries in cities and opening up a path that combines industrialization, urbanization, and the resolution of the "three rural issues" through market mechanisms. Practice has shown that the channels for rural labor transfer are primarily working and entrepreneurship. Work fosters entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship drives employment. Both job seeking and entrepreneurship collectively promote rural labor transfer. From the strategic perspective of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, breaking the dual structure, and achieving modernization, we must recognize the significance of the current rural labor transfer and the activities of the masses in working and starting businesses. We must remove institutional barriers, innovate systems, improve the environment, and promote its healthy development. Under the central government's advocacy of the "people-centered, comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable" scientific development concept, with particular attention to the "three rural issues," Premier Wen Jiabao issued an important directive on April 10, 2004, to the China Rural Labor Resource Development Research Association, highlighting the importance of promoting orderly rural labor transfer and addressing rural employment issues, emphasizing the goal of increasing farmers' incomes to achieve a moderately prosperous society, and proposing tasks and requirements such as providing various forms of training for migrant workers to improve their quality, facilitating and serving their urban labor migration, and safeguarding their legitimate rights and interests. This serves as a great encouragement and inspiration for all institutions, organizations, and individuals dedicated to the development of rural labor resources in China. Now, it is increasingly clear that China's path to a moderately prosperous society in all respects and modernization requires continued progress from a planned economy to a market economy and from a rural, agricultural society to an urban, industrial society. In this process, the dominant factors determining development are industrialization and urbanization, while the main challenges are the "three rural issues." To change the dual urban-rural structure and implement coordinated urban-rural development, it is essential to link the two. There are many aspects involved, such as market mechanisms and government macro-control mechanisms, but the most critical is to allow surplus rural labor and rural populations to transfer to non-agricultural industries and cities. The transfer of rural surplus labor to non-agricultural industries and cities can be said to be both related to farmers' income growth ("people's livelihood") and to the realization of a moderately prosperous society in all respects and modernization goals ("national affairs"). Today, China has completed the stage of resolving food security issues and has generally entered a moderately prosperous society, but this prosperity remains low-level, incomplete, and unbalanced, with problems primarily concentrated in the "three rural issues." The "three rural issues" are linked to China's transition from an agricultural country to an industrialized and modernized nation at a certain stage, and currently, there still exist "five lows": low resource allocation in agriculture due to a high population-to-land ratio; narrow agricultural product markets and low prices; low employment levels of rural labor; low rural incomes; and low rural purchasing power and material and cultural consumption levels. This is primarily reflected in the low income and slow growth of rural incomes. Today, rural areas still have 30 million impoverished populations, and 40% of the population has an annual income below 2,000 yuan, with the income gap between rural and urban residents widening. The fundamental constraint on rural development is the insufficient employment of rural labor, and without resolving the issue of where surplus labor should go, income growth cannot be fundamentally addressed. This issue is actually long-term, involving social structure, systems, and development strategies, primarily the unaltered dual urban-rural economic structure. Only by solving this problem can the Chinese nation achieve the great rejuvenation.
Now, multiple measures have been proposed to address the "three rural issues." While seeking solutions around the "agricultural" aspect, more emphasis must be placed on addressing them through industrialization and urbanization. It is necessary to gradually and orderly transfer the hundreds of millions of idle rural laborers to non-agricultural industries with higher comparative benefits and to urban agglomeration, transforming them into urban residents. To completely transform the dual economic structure into a modern unified economy—i.e., to break free from the dual structure and achieve such a profound and social transformation—will be the basic trend of China's social and economic development in the coming decades.
Encouragingly, following the rise of township enterprises in the 1980s, the "wave of migrant workers" emerged, and today, nearly 100 million rural laborers across the country have participated in the large-scale transfer through cross-regional mobility and urban labor migration, infiltrating various industries in cities and opening up a path that combines industrialization, urbanization, and the resolution of the "three rural issues" through market mechanisms. Practice has shown that the channels for rural labor transfer are primarily working and entrepreneurship. Work fosters entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurship drives employment. Both job seeking and entrepreneurship collectively promote rural labor transfer. We must view the current rural labor transfer and the activities of the masses in working and starting businesses from the strategic perspective of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, breaking the dual structure, and achieving modernization. We must recognize its significance, remove institutional barriers, innovate systems, improve the environment, and promote its healthy development.
Adapting to the needs of social transformation and rural labor transfer, in the late 1980s, the then-Central Rural Policy Research Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Agriculture, initiated the China Rural Labor Resource Development Research Association. It has now been 15 years since its establishment and is currently under the administration of the Development Research Center of the State Council. The association has united a group of dedicated practitioners committed to serving the "three rural issues" and researching solutions to rural population employment transfer during the modernization process. It emphasizes social surveys and combines them with research on China's overall, strategic, and policy issues to explore the conditions, problems, and trends of rural labor resource development and transfer employment, offering advice to the state.
At the recommendation of the association, with approval from the State Council, the "Two Ministries and One Center" (referring to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Development Research Center of the State Council) launched the Rural Labor Resource Development and Employment Pilot Project, which has been ongoing since 1991. The project has now expanded to more than 100 counties in eight provinces and has accumulated extensive experience. The association was among the first to recognize the phenomenon of job seekers returning to their hometowns to start businesses. Since 1994, it has held an annual "Experience Exchange Meeting for Entrepreneurship Stars" every two years, paving the way for rural labor transfer and independent entrepreneurship. It has also collaborated with rural labor resource development research associations and promotion associations in Sichuan, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Yunnan, and Guizhou provinces to promote the transfer of rural labor and the cause of rural labor migration.
The China Rural Labor Resource Development Research Association adheres to the combination of theory and practice, achieving fruitful research results. The works included in this book are the latest research findings since 1999. Their characteristics include:
1. Connecting rural labor transfer, the "three rural issues," and China's national conditions, as well as the comprehensive construction of a moderately prosperous society and the long-term development of modernization, through three strategic studies: "China's Path to Breaking the Dual Structure," "China's Rural Labor Transfer Strategy," and "China's Rural Labor Transfer and Farmers' Urbanization Strategy."
2. Numerous articles and survey reports reflecting hot and difficult issues in urban-rural reforms and rural labor employment transfer, as well as practical issues affecting migrant workers' interests, proposing innovative ideas and policy recommendations that have generated significant social response and played a beneficial role in leadership decision-making.
The book is divided into five parts.
Part 1: Full Employment, Reducing Farmers, Enriching Farmers, and Building a Moderately Prosperous Society in All Respects
This part proposes that the key to increasing farmers' incomes lies in fully developing rural labor resources, explores coordinated urban-rural development and full employment of farmers in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, discusses the class attributes of migrant workers, and raises issues related to human capital.
Part 2: China's Path to Breaking the Dual Structure and Rural Labor Transfer
The research report "China's Path to Breaking the Dual Structure" points out that a series of major practical issues in China today, such as the prominent "three rural issues," a large urban-rural gap, severe lagging in rural labor transfer and urbanization, unreasonable allocation of factors, and political issues where farmers cannot fully enjoy equal national treatment with urban residents, are all related to the dual structure. If not addressed promptly, they will have a significant impact on China's long-term development. Transforming the dual economic structure into a modern unified economy is the basic trend of China's social and economic development in the coming decades. Breaking free from the dual structure requires implementing "three transformations" to drive the "three rural issues" and achieving urban-rural integration.
Part 3: China's Rural Labor Transfer and Farmers' Urbanization Strategy
This part proposes that China's economic development and employment have entered a new stage where urbanization serves as the primary growth point for economic development and employment absorption, achieving reasonable alignment between rural and urban industries, developing the tertiary industry, accelerating the transfer of rural labor to cities, and speeding up the process of transforming farmers into urban residents. This will mark the third liberation of farmers. The characteristics of the third liberation of rural labor are breaking the dual structure between rural and urban areas that are isolated from each other. It also proposes that, in the long run, sustained economic growth and modernization depend on the transfer of surplus rural labor to non-agricultural industries, especially to cities. The transition from a planned economy to a socialist market economy also requires a corresponding shift in urban-rural relations—moving from restricting farmers from entering cities to actively attracting them, which is a historic shift affecting the future of national modernization.
Part 4: Research on Rural Labor Transfer from the Perspective of Systems and Policies
This part studies rural labor transfer, primarily in the form of cross-regional mobility and urban labor migration, from the perspectives of systems and policies. Some articles analyze institutional barriers that hinder the transfer of rural labor to cities and the transformation of farmers into urban residents, as well as the policy changes from restricting and regulating farmers entering cities to accommodating, serving, guiding, and promoting them. They also discuss current institutional innovations and policy adjustments that need to be addressed. Some articles reflect on sensitive social issues, such as forced detention and repatriation of migrant workers engaged in employment, violations of migrant workers' rights by employers, and migrant worker schools in urban-rural areas, proposing corresponding policy measures.
Part 5: Introduction to Rural Labor Mobility and Transfer in Jiangsu, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Other Provinces
This part introduces the situation of rural labor mobility and transfer in provinces such as Jiangsu, Guizhou, and Yunnan, providing training and services for rural labor transfer and entrepreneurship. At the end of the book, there are research materials on several issues related to rural labor resource development.