Abstract: The current migrant children welfare policy in China covers all areas of migrant children’s lives, guarding their basic rights such as survival, development and protection. However, the policy is not free from problems. For example, it fails to form a national and clearly targeted children welfare policy framework under the guidance of the Children Welfare Law; it lacks a set of institutional arrangements for the safety of children in terms of migrant children survival policy; it lacks relevant regulations for prohibiting the abuse of children in terms of migrant children protection policy; and it lacks relevant policies for the children’s participation in social life in terms of migrant children development policy. Some recommendations are thus made for constructing the framework of modern migrant children welfare policy in China. The construction should be based on the theoretical basis of developmentoriented social welfare policy, take into account of factors affecting migrant children welfare, such as family, school, community and legislation, and design a toplevel strategy for migrant children’s mid and longterm development as well as a set of bottomlevel policies concerning investment in human capital, employment support, and humanistic care.

Key words: development, migrant children, welfare policy