【Abstract】 One of the major social programsin China currentlyisthat of”building a socialist newcountryside”,whichaimstoimprove agricultur-al production,ethos ,livingstandards ,appearance and public administrationinthe rural areasin addressingthe wideningrural -urbangapin socio -economic development . Building a newcountryside lays foundation to constructing a harmonious society. However ,building a newcountryside brings both challenges and opportunitiestoresearch of population problems andtofamily planning work.Toaddress the issue ,China Population Association,in collaboration with Hunan Provincial Population and Family Planning Commission,Hunan Provincial Population Association and Hunan Agricultural College ,held a national conference on migration and building a newcountryside ,29 -30 June 2006 ,Changsha ,capital city of Hunan Province .This issue of”Population and Development Forum”pub-lishes fourimportant papersfromthe conferences .Thefour papers by professors and expertsfromdiverging disciplines explore and dis-cuss questions on socio -economic effects of rural out -migration, demise of rural village during urbanization, characteristics andqualitative changes in rural migrant workers ,return migration,reduction of peasant population,and the challenges of these develop-ments to building a newcountryside . The conference calls for more efforts in investigation and research on this great and significanttopic .更多还原