From South China Morning Post (registration required): Hukou system overhauled to narrow divide between rural, non-rural areas.
Beijing is set to change the residency – or hukou – system to give migrant workers resident status in urban areas.
The changes to the system would allow temporary migrant workers to apply for “green cards” which would enable them to move to large and medium-sized cities as permanent residents, the state-run Legal Daily reported yesterday.Liu Jinguo , a deputy head of the leading group on mobile population, said the Ministry of Public Security was conducting further studies on a united rural-urban system in order to eliminate the divide between rural and non-rural residences.
According to official figures, 86.73 million migrant workers are registered in mainland cities.
…… However, Wen Tiejun , a leading expert on mainland rural affairs, emphasised that the hukou system was related to many different social issues and was not just about residency.
“You can’t change migrant farmers’ conditions just by changing the hukou system. Different government departments have to make sure the changes can be implemented smoothly,” he said.
See also: Institutionalized exclusion:The tenuous legal status of internal migrants in China’s major cities (PDF) , a report of Human Rights in China.