An Initial Study On The Legal Governance Of Floating Population In China

With the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization in China, as a resultof the strength of ‘pull’ caused by the process of urbanization as well as the strength of‘push’ caused by regional disparity, the amount of floating population, especially theamount of migrant workers has been very huge and has been increasing continuously.According to the sixth national census data, the amount of floating population, which is16.5%of the whole national population, has added up to221million. Compared with2000, the amount of floating population increases by81.03%. We are facing seriouschallenges in the social management of floating population caused by the huge amountand the rapid increasing speed of floating population.Since the foundation of the People’s Republic of China in1949, under the context ofthe establishment of two-dimensional household register system, the transformation toeconomic system and the transition of the functions of the government, there are threemain stages in the development of the management system of floating population. Firstly,household register strictly limited stage from1949to1977. Secondly, household registermodestly managed from1978to1999. Thirdly, household register territorially managedsince2000.We are in the period of great transformation concerning about the managementpolicy, laws and regulations regard to floating population. However, there arose differentkinds of practical mode of legal governance from different all over China dealing with thesocial management of floating population. There are three typical patterns, firstly, the typeof security management to expand (adopted by most cities); secondly, the coordinate typeof professional organizations (such as Shanghai, Wuxi and Shenzhen);thirdly, thecoordinate type of large population by agencies (such as Zhangjiakou and Jiaxing).According to practice, basically stay in control level, rather than on the true meaningof governance, we could find out that the management primary subject of the floatingpopulation in China is the Government. Specifically, the legal governance of China’sfloating population has following difficulties: poor coordination of the administrativedepartment, lacking of management contingent; government-led management of floatingpopulation, the floating population in the low level of participation in governance;management system design is unreasonable which is not enough to protect the rights andinterests of the floating population; The information collection of the floating population isunclear which cause the management is inefficient. The root of the problem is themanagement concept of hysteresis, policies and regulations are not perfect, the dual of the household registration system. Although the government administrative departments hasinvested a lot of the arm of flesh, material resources and financial resources in the legalgovernance of the floating population, the management of floating population is difficultto adapt to practical needs. and therefore this is a theoretical and practical issue in thefuture which must respond to improve the social urbanization and modern development inChina. So this paper learn from some experiences of the management of floatingpopulation in developed countries, based on this make following recommendations:firstly,in the subject aspect, formation multiple governance structure which make concertedefforts by government, community, organization of grass-roots; secondly, in the objectaspect, promote the equalization of public services in floating population; thirdly, in themeasure aspect, Take measures to formation synthetical governance system but mainlyrely on the legal measure. We are looking forward on the path of the perfect legalgovernance of China’s floating population.