SUMMARY: A fragmented and segmented social protection system can create barriers for labour migration and be socially divisive. A review of the literature on Europe's integration of its social insurance system demonstrates the preconditions for developing an integrated social insurance system. These include political determination, social agreement by the contributors, administrative capacity and financial management ability. In this article, the author explains that there has been an ongoing process of gradual unification of the social insurance system in China. However, this ongoing process has not been able to achieve a universal system for both the rural and urban populations. A recent push towards further unification has been problematic. Not only have difficulties arisen from an unwillingness to implement policies, as often discussed by critics; they are also embedded in a more profound fragmentation of ideas and interests, and in institutional constraints. The author argues that a new, non-contributory basic pension, together with lowered transaction costs between contributory subsystems, may be a more realistic way forwards.
There is a growing, although still far from comprehensive, literature within China on the impacts of climate change in urban areas; also an evolving policy framework at national level to address these concerns and an increased interest in climate change a
SUMMARY: A fragmented and segmented social protection system can create barriers for labour migration and be socially divisive. A review of the literature on Europe's integration of its social insurance system demonstrates the preconditions for developing an integrated social insurance system. These include political determination, social agreement by the contributors, administrative capacity and financial management ability. In this article, the author explains that there has been an ongoing process of gradual unification of the social insurance system in China. However, this ongoing process has not been able to achieve a universal system for both the rural and urban populations. A recent push towards further unification has been problematic. Not only have difficulties arisen from an unwillingness to implement policies, as often discussed by critics; they are also embedded in a more profound fragmentation of ideas and interests, and in institutional constraints. The author argues that a new, non-contributory basic pension, together with lowered transaction costs between contributory subsystems, may be a more realistic way forwards.
AbstractThis article uses semi‐structured in‐depth interviews with rural–urban migrants in Tianjin to look at the personal circumstances of such migrants in China. The interviews suggest that, unlike their predecessors in previous years, many rural–urban migrants now come with the intention of settling down. While there have been major policy changes in the last five years, these migrants are still, in many respects, not integrated into urban society. Meeting these challenges would require further changes in urban policies and urban society, taking account of the needs and interests of rural–urban migrants.
Abstract Developing an old-age service system that can meet the fast-growing needs of the aging population is challenging. It is increasingly recognised that community-level services should be pivotal in providing services to older people. In this article, the authors use the Chinese experience and argue that because the state is not clear how such a system should look like, all actors behave like entrepreneurs who strategise, take risks and search for a viable "business model". The research draws upon in-depth interviews and focus groups in six cities in China collected in 2015-2016 and follow-up interviews in one community in three cities in 2021. The findings show that the service system has evolved into a dynamic entrepreneurial welfare mix that actively embraces the market. This research contributes to the theoretical development of the welfare mix. The authors also raised possible issues with such a direction of change in the conclusion.