Introduction

With the rapid urbanization in China recently, the number of China's internal migrants reached 253 million at the end of 2014. Meanwhile, the overexpansion of metropolises leads to a series of economic and social problems, which necessitates the research on China's internal migrants. The book focuses on the theme of“Urban Tolerance, Internal Migrants, and the City Development in China”. I build the analysis on the perspective of social security and public services, and propose the concept of“urban tolerance”, which is evaluated on the basis of social insurance, labor protection, and public services, as a measurement of the city's acceptance to internal migrants. I establish the index system along with the theoretical framework, and empirically analyze the development of urban industries and city size in accordance with urban tolerance and internal migrants in China, which are of significant theoretical and practical importance.

The book is composed of seven chapters. Chapter I illustrates the background, motivation, content, methods, innovation and deficiency of the research. Chapter II comprehensively reviews the existing domestic and foreign literatures, and clarifies definitions and classificationsof the internal migrants, urban tolerance and city development. Chapter III summarizes the status quo of China's internal migrants and underlying determinants, and briefly introduces the research topics of Chapter IV-VI. I also describe the main data sets, “the countrywide dynamic monitoring survey data of China's internal migrants from the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China”. The subsequent empirical analysis includes three parts, “The Exploration on the Relationship between Urban Tolerance and Internal Migrants”，“Urban Tolerance, Transfer Employment of Migrants and the Development of Urban Industries”, and “Urban Tolerance, Internal Migrants and the Development of City Scale”, which are interconnected. From these chapters I draw main findings and conclusions. Finally, Chapter VII summarizes the theoretical progress and empirical conclusions of the entire book, and suggests potential policy implications including urban public policy, industrial policy, household registration system reform, implementation of policy measures, successful experiences，etc. Suggestions for future research are also provided. Adopted methodology includes a quantitative part, which is mainly composed of the Principal Component Analysis method, regression method, Input-Output Analysis method, case analysis method and Data Envelopment Analysis method, and a qualitative part that encompasses classification of logical relationships, the comparison and innovation of theory, and the institutional evaluation and improvement.

Through theoretical and empirical analysis, I make four important conclusions:1. The urban tolerance index is positively correlated with the long-term living willingness of migrants, as well as the willingness for them to settle down and the employment of migrants.2. Urban tolerance, transfer employment of migrants and urban industrial structure adjustment mutually affect each other. There is the relationship of adaptable efficiency and allocation efficiency between urban tolerance and the development of industries, which simultaneously promote “the migrants moving along with industrial adjustment to achieve the inclusive growth”.3. Urban tolerance, internal migrants and the development of city scale are inter-linked. Nowadays the correlation between China's urban tolerance level and city scale efficiency is positive, and the correlation between the migration scale and city scale efficiency is in an inverted U shape.4. Industrial policy is the prime determinant of the city scale. And the rationalization of urban industrial structure is conducive to the optimization of the city size. The development of industries and city scale links the urban tolerance and internal migrants together to make the system operates sustainably. In summary, urban tolerance, internal migrants and city development, which constitute the complete logical system, influence each other in a self-reinforcing manner. Urban tolerance benefits the internal migration and social integration, which promotes the sustainable and healthy development of the cities.

Then I propose five policy recommendations: 1. More public services and resettlement policy system should be provided to migrants, assisting them to integrate into society.2. The government should keep the integration mechanism work effectively, in order to maximize the welfare of residents and achieve collaborative development of the cities.3. We should make reasonable industrial policy and household registration system to guide the inflow of migrants to match the city's industrial structure, which aims at the appropriate distribution of population.4. Chinese cities may achieve urban inclusive growth and institutional improvement by combining the central government's strategy with the local government's exploration.5. According to the experience of Hong Kong, the rational suggestions for megacities should be to develop the high-tech industry, the environmental friendly industry, the certification testing industries, etc. and to restrain the development of the service industries such as the real estate industry, the labor-intensive industries, the wholesale markets, etc.

The main contribution of this book can be summarized in three aspects, the construction of an applicable algorithm of urban tolerance composite index, the development of a paradigm of method system for the quantitative study using urban tolerance index, and the establishment of a coherent analytical system that incorporates urban tolerance, internal migrants and city development.

This book attacks some major problems related to“urban tolerance”. Future research, preferably based on data with higher quality, will attempt to include more representative subjective variables into the index system, to improve the estimation strategy, and to supplement the empirical system with more concrete components. I hope certain enhancements can yield better theoretical frameworks, broader research ideas and more accurate results. If there are any questions or suggestions, please oblige me with your valuable comments.

Last but not the least, I would like to thank our institute director Yin Wenquan for writing the preface during his busy schedule, and Professor Zhang Zhongxiang from Tianjin University for his highly recommendation and recognition of this book. And I am very grateful to Professor Liu Chunbin, Professor Rui Wang, Professor Hu Biliang, Professor Li Jiaxiang, Professor Wei Fuxiang, Professor Yang Renfa for the unselfish help and support they gave to me during writing and revising. Thanks for the precious data from the National Health and Family Planning Commission of China, and other cited literature from other scholars. I really appreciate SSAP, especially director Yun Wei and editor Kong Qingmei for their professional consciousness, the high-quality publishing and the pleasant cooperation.

Li Yeyan

April 2017, at No.1 Nancaochang Street