Introduction

One of the main purposes of Cass-Unesco project in the eight places of China is to try to test in different ways for reducing the poverty and protecting social/legal interests of migrant laborers，which it is expected to influence the process of policy making in different levels of the government. However，in order to achieve this goal，the project designs and the related activities try to base on a profound analysis of the migrant workers’ situation in the market of urban economics that is believed by the project team to play more and more crucial role in constraining improvement of the situation of migrant workers in urban areas of China. Since there is much debate on what are the responsible causes for the present unsatisfied situation of the migrant workers in urban areas of China and there are many different ideas，suggestions，policy orientations that have been put forward in trying to deal with the matter. Therefore，this paper wants to present a point of view related to the experiences and researches based on the CASS-UNESCO project and some data from wider recourses as well. First，the general background of China’s migrant workers will be discussed in response to the ongoing argument of the issue；the idea given by this paper is quite related to the three years of experiences and observations from the project activities of CASS-UNESCO. Second，a discussion will combine data from CASS-UNESCO project in recent years. Third，issues and problems in the project. Fourth，suggestions for policy development and future design of the project.

1.Insights on China’s urban migrant laborer issue

The special problem faced by China’s urban poverty is the living conditions of migrant laborers. In the long run，however，there will be more and more urban laborers join in this procession and if this group of people do not have a minimum safety net for a long period of time，new and serious urban poverty will be incurred. Of the more than 300 millions surplus rural laborers in China，about 100 millions belong to the floating population running between urban and rural areas to work or do business and over 100 millions rural laborers are engaged in non-agricultural activities at home. It is predicated that in the next 20 to 30 years，there will have 200 to 300 millions rural laborers enter the urban areas and they will constitute main problems for China’s urban poverty in the future. Here，the paper wants first to talk about emphatically some different views on the understanding of “migrant labors” and then to explore relevant policy suggestions.

The reality of “migrant labors” tells us that the issue of “migrant labors” belongs to the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development” and also to the question of industrialization and urbanization. According to the mainstream view at home，the fundamental way out for the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development” lies in cities instead of in the countryside，i. e. it lies in industrialization and urbanization. The background of this view is still the experience of western industrialized countries：the agricultural output value makes up only less than 14% of China’s GDP and it is therefore thought that the urban population should not be a little more than 30% of the total population in accordance with proportions of three industries and it should be about the same as the proportions of the second and third industries in the GDP，and in comparison with international experience，China’s urban population should be at least over 60%. But because the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development” in China is not identical with the experience of industrialized countries，the mainstream view more often attributes this problem to the domestic economic and social policies of the Chinese government. According to this view，social and economic policies have resulted in “serious lagging behind” of China’s urbanization and the concrete reasons are that the Chinese government has not loosened its domicile system control and that the government has not promoted actively flow of rural population into urban areas. This paper does not mean to negate that the Chinese government still has potential positive initiatives and room to tap on the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development” and that both in the past and at present，there are still some major policy defects. However，the most important problem of the mainstream view is that it has neglected a more essential problem behind the domestic policies towards the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development”，i. e. international factors of the origin of the home economic and social policies that have led to predicaments of the question of “rural labors，agriculture and rural development” on one hand，and domestic labor market factor itself on the other hand. Fundam