A Research On The Factors Affecting Rural Laborer's Permanent Migration

In contemporary China, the rural-urban migration is characterized by instability. A great deal of rural laborers has transferred into cities without permanent migration, which result in a mass of floating population and consequently a series of negative effects to economic and social development.To interpret the decision-making process of rural laborers, a Cost-Return model on individual level is developed. The conclusion is that the marginal cost of permanent migration for rural laborers is much higher than the marginal income, which is because that the costs of quitting rural land is very high due to the deformity of rural laborer's land property rights. So the rational migration choice must be working in city without settling down.In the end, the direction of reforming current rural land tenure is presented, which is to give rural labor full land property rights.