Abstract: Migrant workers are a special class gradually formed with the transformation of economic system and social structure after China’s reform and opening-up, and as an important force to promote the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization in China. Migrant workers have made significant contributions to China’s rapid economic growth, while their own development issues have become a major challenge in the development of agriculture, rural areas and farmers, and implementation of rural vitalization strategy in the new era. This paper systematically expounds the formation and the evolution track under five characteristics of Chinese migrant workers in the past 40 years since reform and opening-up, and analyzes objectively migrant workers’ contributions to industrialization and urbanization, as well as the new challenges under the economic transformation and the distorted development of urbanization. On this basis, the paper shares the prospects for the transformation and citizenization of migrant workers in the new era.