Optimization for Dissemination Factors of Core Socialist Values in the Process of Citizenization of Migrant Workers

Yun HE

Department of Party Building in Party School of the Shaanxi Provincial Committee of C.P.C (Shaanxi Academy of Governance), Xi’an 710061, China; School of Marxism, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China

Abstract With the implementation of the national "urbanization" strategy, the citizenization of migrant workers has become an important part of China’s urbanization process. The citizenization of migrant workers not only relies on the institutional reform to promote the exogenous citizenization, but also depends on the dissemination and cultivation of core socialism values, and it transforms traditional migrant workers into real urban citizens. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to strengthen the dissemination of core socialist values to the migrant workers, and it is necessary to systematically optimize the four elements of dissemination subject, dissemination object, dissemination medium and dissemination environment.

Key words Citizenization of migrant workers, Core socialist values, Optimization for dissemination factors

1 Introduction

According to the 2018 statistical bulletin of national economic and social development, the total number of migrant workers in China has reached 288.36 million, which make themselves a huge group not be ignored. Statistics on the total number of migrant workers in China from 2013 to 2018 shows that the number of migrant workers in China increased by 19.2 million over 2013, an average annual increase of 3.24 million, or an average annual compound growth rate of 1.4%. This indicates that the social structure of China is entering a new urban era with urban society as the main body. Therefore, the citizenization of migrant workers will be an essential problem in Chinese transformation to an urban society. the citizenization of migrant workers not only depends on the process of the household registration system and land system and so on which promote the urbanization of exogenous institutional reforms, but also depends on the identity of core socialist values and other methods, which promotes endogenous citizenization of the migrant workers, so as to make traditional migrant workers values, ways of thinking and living habits, moral standards and social rights and various aspects transforming to urban residents. It will smoothly realize the overall social change process. However, The current absence of core socialist values for migrant workers, whose roles, as a sub-element of social science, were obviously lacked in the process of "orderly promotion" of the citizenization of migrant workers. Therefore, the research on the dissemination of core socialist values in the process of citizenization of migrant workers is of a great theoretical and practical significance.

2 Core socialist values leading to the remolding of migrant workers’ values in the process of citizenization

The formation of migrant workers is the result of the lack of timely reform of the urban-rural divide policy especially the household registration system in the process of urbanization. In 1958, China officially issued the binary household registration policy, which distinguished the agricultural household registration system from the non-agricultural household registration system, dividing the whole population into urban population and rural population, and strictly controlling the transformation from rural population to urban population. This policy has far-reaching consequences, making farmers become a political and legal identity, rather than a freely shifting professional identity. From then on, Based on the binary household registration system, and further the urban population were endowed with the education, employment, housing, health care, social security and so on a number of "identity" welfare. So the binary social system was established gradually based on the household registration system, it constituted the institutional barrier to prevent the migration of rural population to cities. This consequence directly leads to a contradiction that urgently needs to be solved in the economic society of urban and rural areas in China. On the one hand, migrant workers are the fresh force of urban construction and prosperity, and an important force to promote China’s modernization process. On the other hand, since the reform and opening up, while cities enjoy the "demographic dividend" to the maximum, but exclude the vast majority of migrant workers who have made great contributions and cannot share the fruits of reform and development. In this way, the situation of polarization of urban and rural development has been gradually created.

In the mid-1980s, the reform and opening up brought a new state of free flow, independent choice of employment and entrepreneurship for farmers. The main ability of farmers was greatly released, and the surplus rural labor force began to transfer to cities, which was roughly divided into two stages. The first stage is space transfer and career transfer. The rural population with rural household registration and contracted agricultural land flows from the countryside to the city, from the primary industry to the secondary and tertiary industries, have become a veritable migrant worker. In the second stage, migrant workers are transformed into urban citizens on the ideological, value, lifestyle and behavior levels, so as to realize the true citizenization of migrant workers. In this sense, the citizenization of migrant workers is a systematic change in the survival mode of migrant workers. It is a phenomenon that migrant workers leaving rural areas for work and business gradually overcome various obstacles, integrate into the urban public service system, and finally turn into citizens. It includes four aspects of the citizenization of migrant workers, occupation, social identity, quality and conscious behavior.

Huntington pointed out: "a society in the midst of rapid social change and modernization of social system transition is often full of various social conflicts and turbulence.[1]" Migrant workers in the process of citizenization are striving for the difficult transformation from "agriculture" to "industry" under the macro background of social transformation. Under this binary transformation, the conflict of diversified social values, the collision of values caused by the transformation of migrant workers themselves, the gap between urban and rural cultures and other factors interweave together, which makes the confrontation extremely fierce. For the group of migrant workers, it is more necessary to take the core socialist values as the guide, to integrate the diverse values and value orientations existing in the society, so as to conduct one’s thoughts, regulate one’s actions, and provide value orientation and spiritual support. Thus the process of urbanization of rural migrant workers not only is to realize the change of rural migrant workers in employment, social identity and living space, only achieve to be remolded of the overall enveloped concept of "citizen" in a series of values, lifestyle and behavior, the process of urbanization of rural migrant workers can be realized in nature sense.

3 Analysis on the value status of migrant workers in the process of citizenization

Value of migrant workers, taking migrant workers themselves as the main body, and the understanding of their life meaning, purpose and life attitude, is the value judgment of the relationship between right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, good and evil. Under the objective influence of the growing environment, rural migrant workers retain the living habits, thinking patterns and values of rural areas, which are essentially farmers’ characteristics. In the process of citizenization, the city’s life style and multiple values give them a sharp ideological impact. Due to the consistency of long-term living environment, the values of this group are essentially homogeneous.

3.1 In terms of economic valuesOn the one hand, most migrant workers move to cities to realize their desire to get rid of poverty. On the other hand, under the influence of urban consumerism and in the city with highly developed economy and diversified scene, migrant workers show obvious tendency to seek benefits in economic value option. Some migrant workers only pay attention to individual interests, ignore collective interests, lack of active tax consciousness and other phenomena. In addition, although the vast majority of migrant workers can rely on their own efforts to obtain labor remuneration, there are still a lack of honest and trustworthy business ethics, tax evasion, fake production and sales, to obtain improper interests.

3.2 In terms of political valuesDue to the restrictions of the household registration system and the electoral system, as well as the characteristics of the frequent trans-regional movement of migrant workers, it is difficult for them to participate in the election of village committee and the right to stand for election, and they are not entitled to participate in the democratic election and affairs management of their city streets and communities. Despite limitation of factors such as obscure organization ownership, the unsmooth channels of political aspirations and the blurred political rights, Migrant workers’ awareness of their rights is gradually strengthening, and they are eager to obtain the equal rights to life, development, education, political participation and rights and interests protection with urban citizens. As a result, they often show hesitation, confusion and helplessness in the process of establishing the value goal of political behavior.

3.3 In terms of cultural valuesIn a fractured society, urban and rural areas have increasingly represented two meanings or two civilizations. This difference will be highlighted in the degree of education and even the degree of values and civilization of the residents in the two sectors of the society[2]. Most of the migrant workers in the pursuit of spiritual and cultural value have positive side, hoping through the efforts to improve its own cultural moral accomplishment and taste value, but there are still simply copy the local culture in cities, rural migrant workers keep their cultural homogeneity, contacts of the convergence and way of life, the lack of a healthy spiritual and cultural life in cities, and cultural life is monotonous, simple form. As a result, there is a serious psychological gap between migrant workers and urban citizens, forming the phenomenon of "psychological island" of migrant workers in urban life.

3.4 In terms of life valuesWhen migrant workers enter the city, the majority of them can integrate into the city life with a kind and simple heart and a positive attitude. However, some migrant workers in the relationship with urban residents life, on the one hand, the humble attitude and speech timid, on the other hand, their heart is torn and uncomfortable, especially there is a huge difference between their life and urban life, the emotion of the huge psychological gap and injustice will be shed, resulting that migrant workers show hostility, from one extreme to another extreme. Therefore, some migrant workers are extremely conflicted in their hearts, and this conflict is a contest between the desire to integrate and the inner resistance.

These situations indicate that in the process of entering urban life, on the one hand, the values of migrant workers will appear the phenomenon of "re-socialization"; on the other hand, the values of this group are malleable. In this view, we must use the core socialism values to reshape the values of migrant workers, help them form a correct world view, outlook on life and values, and then guide their social practice and achieve their own life value.

4 Analysis on the influencing factors of values of migrant workers in the process of citizenization

4.1 The social identity of migrant workers are promoted by the continuous improving of the household registration system

After the reform and opening up, the household registration system were began to reform step by step. However, the household registration system have been deeply rooted in people’s minds for a long time, and to some extent transforming into a shackle of identity and hierarchy. In the process of citizenization, the social identity of migrant workers has been constantly adjusting, at the same time, the self-understanding of migrant workers is also deepening. At the beginning, the values of migrant workers are always affected by the household registration policy, which makes migrant workers feel inferior in self-recognition of their identity. With the reform of the household registration system, the identity of migrant workers have been recognized by the society, and the values of migrant workers have changed accordingly. The values of migrant workers have changed gradually after their identities have been recognized by the society. Household registration, as an important factor affecting values, no longer are existed, and the core contents of values have also shifted from too much consideration of identity in the past to thinking about their own development.

4.2 The conservative nature of rural culture affects the renewal of values of migrant workersFor migrant workers grow up in the 5 000-year-old Chinese farming culture, the conservatism brought by their birth restricts their attitude towards new things and views in society to some extent. First, influenced by the concept of "obeying the destiny of heaven and depending on heaven" in rural culture, migrant workers are satisfied with the present status in life and do not want to change, Second, under the influence of "narrow individualism", migrant workers emphasize too much importance to their personal interests in life beyond other interests, which makes them not actively face their personal development, Third, due to the influence of "lazy thinking", migrant workers are unwilling to learn and think, which restricts their life development.

4.3 The different living environment causes the instability of migrant workers’ valuesIn the process of urban life, migrant workers face unequal living environment, which make them excluded in space. The city Loaded large population density, carries the population of various class within the limited geographical scope, which make the social structure complex. It is very obvious in the living environment and area segregation between the rich and the poor, urban elite and urban poor. Migrant workers often live in shantytowns, and the obvious spatial exclusion and class isolation enable migrant workers unable to integrate into cities, which deepen their psychological feelings of discrimination. In addition, the issue of filial piety and support for "empty nest families" and "left-behind old people" in rural areas has become a major psychological and economic burden for migrant workers, which has a great impact on their values. Migrant workers are often caught in a dilemma between filial duty and work. The multiple pressures caused by the two different living environments of migrant workers constantly interfere with their values, which are extremely unstable in the development process and may change and develop at any time, it establishes a lot of obstacles for guiding the values of migrant workers.

4.4 The difference among migrant workers’ ability and quality determines the particularity of their valuesThe difference of migrant workers’ ability and quality is mainly derived from the difference of their own education. The main performance is that there is a certain gap between the cultural quality of migrant workers themselves and the realization of the goal of citizenization, and it is difficult to form the support of knowledge and ability required by their citizenization in a certain period of time, which is mainly reflected in the low educational level of migrant workers, seriously affecting their value cognition and judgment. Specifically they are manifested in the following three aspects: one aspect is low education. Most of the migrant workers are educated at high school or below, and many are only in primary school, Second is lack of skills. A large number of migrant workers have never participated in professional vocational skill education. In the process of transforming from farmers to migrant workers, they cannot quickly change their working status and improve their vocational skills. As a result, most migrant workers can only stay in low-level labor groups for a long time and engage in low-skilled jobs. Third is inactive for the enthusiasm for urban civilization. Under the influence of the long-term urban-rural dualistic system, there is still a big gap between the living habits, thinking styles and interpersonal communication of migrant workers and urban residents, which leads to the emotional rejection and be unapproved of migrant workers by some citizens, so migrant workers hardly integrate into urban life. The lack of their own quality determines the particularity of values of migrant workers.

5 Systematic optimization of the elements of the dissemination of core socialist values

5.1 Dissemination subjectIn the process of citizenization of migrant workers, the main body of the dissemination of core socialist values should be the transmitting and receiving parties, which is the embodiment of "inter-subjectivity" thinking in the dissemination. That is to say, the government, mass organizations and communities, as the transmitter, should take meeting the needs of migrant workers and solving the practical problems in their lives and work as the starting point of value dissemination. It is the ultimate goal of value dissemination to realize the value of migrant workers, improve the quality of migrant workers, promote the comprehensive and free development of migrant workers, it is the basic principles of value dissemination to understand, care for and respect migrant workers, The key of the dissemination of values is to stimulate the subjective consciousness of migrant workers and to cultivate their subjective spirit. As recipients, migrant workers themselves should also play a role in self-education, consciously "eliminating" the negative influence of traditional farmers’ consciousness, getting out of the original rural social capital network and self-closed psychology, overcoming their own prejudice against urban residents, actively seeking contacts with urban residents, striving to expand new urban social capital, and integrating into urban life as soon as possible.

5.2 Dissemination objectThe object of communication is the main content of value communication in the process of citizenization of migrant workers, namely the core socialist values including freedom, equality, justice and rule of law at the social level; patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendliness at the individual level[3]. These twenty-four words of socialist core values will guide the vast majority of the Chinese people, including migrant workers, to establish common ideals and pursue values.

The language expression mode of the communication content should realize the approach from "text" to "humanity" and change from the metaphysical discourse paradigm to the humanistic discourse paradigm based on "life world". That is to say, the dissemination of core socialist values includes the discourse spread concept, goal, the principle of discourse, the discourse content, the discourse form and so on, should give full consideration to the actual understanding of migrant workers, way of thinking, cultural customs and habits, spread to real people in the word under the background of social life, make the dissemination discourse system of core socialist values transcend the political discourse, document discourse, power discourse, so as to be easier to understand and accept by migrant workers and then express in the way of discourse creating resonances.

5.3 Dissemination mediumConsidering the fact that migrant workers still follow the "differential order" communication mode with consanguinity and geographical relationship as the main link in urban life, the communication scope is relatively small and the communication mode is relatively direct. When choosing the leading value dissemination medium, we should proceed from the following aspects. Firstly, functional departments such as publicity, culture, education, science and technology as well as other primary level organizations such as the streets, community, according to the regional economic situation, working time, personal interests and the actual situation of the migrant, organize widely happy events for some migrant workers within flexible time, site and content, it will attract migrant workers in the local region participating in broadly , which will cultivate their awareness of learning and constantly progressive pursuit of life. News media and cultural institutions should also provide more cultural products that meet the tastes and personalities of migrant workers to enrich their leisure and aesthetic choices. Secondly, in the vocational skills training for migrant workers, it will be integrated into the dissemination socially leading values. In the process of vocational skills training, the setting of relevant contents of leading values for migrant workers will help them develop good moral cultivation, cultivate the value pursuit of patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendship, and improve their citizenization ability.

5.4 Dissemination environmentIn the process of citizenization of migrant workers, the dissemination of core socialist values of migrant workers results in changing themselves, create themselves, and realize their own value during the process of helping migrant workers adopt to urban life. This process is inseparable from environment adaptation of the migrant workers from rural to the city, agricultural work to work, rural to community and. Firstly, the government should create a favorable development environment for migrant workers. It is necessary to deepen reform of the household registration system and break down rigid barriers between urban and rural areas, strengthen the construction of laws and regulations to effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers, promote the rational distribution of resources such as social security, education and medical care, and ensure equal opportunities for the survival and development of rural migrant workers. We should take effective measures to performance the fully function of the labor departments and strengthen people-oriented management of migrant workers. Secondly, it is recommended to "strive to form an inclusive and open atmosphere in society, provide more platforms for migrant workers to show themselves, enhance the sense of trust and identity among members of society, and improve the degree of social integration"[4]. For the target, it is to be lifted the social identity environment of migrant workers, strengthened the publicity guide and ideological education of city residents, education city residents to abandon the discrimination of migrant workers, foster city residents the mentality of tolerance, gratitude to eliminate misunderstandings and barriers between urban and rural population. The citizens should understand migrant workers with a tolerant attitude, warmly treat migrant workers, and will be grateful for the city contribution made by the migrant workers, that will gradually form good social atmosphere of respect for migrant workers, making them enjoy fairly the modern civilization of the city.

Migrant workers as an important construction force for the socialism with Chinese characteristics, this group’s recognition degree to the core socialism values have a direct influence on the process of citizenization of migrant workers. Therefore, we need to redesign and optimize the four elements of the dissemination process of the dissemination subject, the dissemination object, the dissemination medium and the dissemination environment, so as to enhance the integration process of this group in the process of citizenization and promote the harmony and development of the country and society.