农民工新政下的流动人口社会保险: 来自中国四大城市的证据

China started to implement a series of "new policies on rural migrants" or "rural-urban unified welfare and social protection reform" in early 2000. This paper, based on a study in four large Chinese cities I examines the impacts of these new policies on migrants' participation in a range of social insurance schemes, such as health care, old age pension, unemployment, and work-related injury. The results strongly suggest that after one decade of social policy reform, rural migrant workers' likelihood of participating in social insurance and protection program is still much lower than that of urban migrants and urban local residents, which indicates the legacy of China's rural/urban dualistic social welfare system is still in place. Migrant workers' participation in these social insurance and protection schemes is closely related to their employment status I especially to formal employment contract. This study indicates that China has started to integrate its migration policies into its overall economic development strategies. With China's approaching so-called "Lewis Turning Point", it is inevitable that labour cost will increase. The increase will not only include higher wages, but also should include the cost in servicing and maintaining the labour force, including migrant workers, such as the social protection/insurance programs that are jointly contributed by the state, employers and workers.