According to the proposals that constitute the 13th Five-Year Plan issued recently, China will strengthen the reform of household registration system, which will give migrant workers who have stable job and income in cities and towns urban residence permits and allow them to move to cities and towns with their families.

It means migrant workers could be urban residents with legal status.

Xiao Jincheng, Director of the Institute of Spatial Planning and Regional Economy of National Development and Reform Commission, said that the reform of household registration system is the biggest highlight of China's new-type urbanization. The policy will transform 100 million farmers into real urban citizens. 

Statistics show that urban resident population of China was 749 million in 2014, representing an urbanization rate of 54.77 percent. However, if the migrant workers were deducted, the urbanization rate of registered urban resident population was only 36.3 percent. In June 2014, the State Council issued a reform plan on household registration system, which proposes that by the year 2020, 100 million relocated populations, including migrant workers, will get urban residence permits.

After this plan was issued, many cities and towns in China have loosened the limitation on migrant workers settling down as permanent urban resident. And this time, the proposals that constitute the 13th Five-Year Plan further propose to increase the urbanization rate of registered urban resident population, which will facilitate more migrant workers to move to cities and towns with families and get urban residence permits.