Integration begins with welfare access

Urbanization represents the strategic core of China's economic development plan. But as people continue flowing into cities, many wonder whether slums will start to develop in the country's ever-expanding urban centers. The real challenges now will be coordinating urban development policies between cities and regions, while also ironing out long-standing social welfare issues.

If migrants can enjoy unfettered access to schooling, affordable housing and employment opportunities in cities, this will facilitate their integration into urban life. In turn, this will discourage the sort of social marginalization that all too often provides fertile ground for ghettoes and shantytowns.

In recent history, China has managed to stave off the eruption of cancerous slums in part because most migrants are provided housing by their employers. According to the results of a survey from a prominent migrant worker's association, about 46.3 percent of migrants had found accommodation in company dormitories and other such facilities.

But this doesn't mean there are not problems ahead. Only 17.6 percent of migrants were protected by medical insurance in 2013, and children of migrants still do not have access to education.