The central authorities recently said China will implement the system of providing basic public services based on the number of people with permanent residence permits, promote migrant workers to share the same rights as local people with hukou, or household registration, to hasten the process of migrant workers becoming city residents.
As China’s economy is transitioning from industrialization to post-industrialization, more people are moving from rural areas to the cities. As a result, the country’s existing hukou management system cannot keep up with the influx, especially in the big cities.
Also, although the hukou system has been reformed for years, migrant workers still cannot fully enjoy the same public services as local residents do, in terms of social insurance, housing guarantee and children’s education. Only by solving these problems can the country conform to the trend of the continuous migration of the rural populations to cities, and realize common prosperity and equality of rights in the cities.
A large number of migrant workers have lived and worked in megacities for a long time, but they have still not obtained local hukou, because of certain obstacles. In big cities, some migrant workers face difficulties applying for a residence permit, as they do not meet certain standards.
In some small and medium-sized cities, it seems the hukou system is no longer an obstacle on the surface, but still a number of migrant workers who have lived there do not have one, because of the lack of simultaneous reform of rural land and other related systems.
For example, some migrant workers are worried that if they get urban hukou, they will lose their land rights in the countryside. Therefore, some relevant rural systems, if not reformed, will become an obstacle to promoting urbanization.
The reform of the hukou system should be to simplify the conditions for migrant workers to apply for residence permits in big cities, gain access to public services based on residence permits, and significantly reduce the threshold for points-based acquisition of hukou.
In rural areas, it is necessary to reform the land system accordingly, so that migrant workers do not lose their legal land rights and interests in the countryside by obtaining urban hukou.
The ultimate goal of hukou reform is to realize the free flow of people and the right of a person to obtain basic public services at a place irrespective of his or her hukou status. Hukou should only be a system of registration for permanent residence, and different rights and interests attached to the residence permit and hukou should be gradually reduced.