Chinese Government response to inequality for migrant workers
The Hukou System, adopted by China in the 1950s was initially used to limit migration out of the countryside. In an era of rapid migration, the hukou system has continued to determine Chinese citizens’ access to housing, education, and public services.
For example, only urban hukou holders have access to urban social benefits or public services. In the absence of holding a local (urban) hukou, migrants who work mostly in the cities are unable to access even the most basic public services where they work. They have effectively been disenfranchised.
In 2014, the Chinese government introduced The Urbanization Plan (2014–2020) which aimed at granting migrants’ full rights and equalizing social benefits for migrants. The 2014 Plan also set a goal of ensuring all migrant children had access to public education. But the new initiatives left plenty of room for local governments to design their own systems of granting social benefits, which some chose to do based on points that basically gave priority to highly educated migrants.
More relaxation of the hukou system has been announced over recent years:
In December 2021, Shanghai announced it would allow graduates from Shanghai’s universities to acquire a Shanghai hukou.
In February 202,2 the east coast province of Zhejiang also announced that a Zhejiang hukou would be made available for recent graduates.
However these changes will not have an impact on the majority of workers from rural areas, who have not reached this level of education.
In early 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) called on cities with a population of under three million people to remove hukou restrictions. However, this would not affect the large proportion of migrant workers in China’s megacities such as Shanghai and Beijing.
