ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the development of old-age social insurance policies for China's rural-to-urban migrant workers. It discusses provision challenges of social security and old-age insurance for migrant workers facing the provision of old-age livelihoods for migrant workers in China. The operation of China's household registration system introduced during the planned economy era forms a major barrier facing the provision of social protection and especially old-age insurance for migrant workers. This chapter outlines the systemic and contextual challenges facing the development of long-term horizon of old-age insurance schemes. As a result, during 2010 policy development focussed on developing the practical procedures for implementing the new policy goals for migrants, the transition to the new national standard scheme for the various provincial and urban experimental policies, and the implications for migrant workers of the new rural pension plan. The developmental and livelihood dimension of social security needs to be recognised as an integral part of the next stage of China's development.
