On his Chinese Law and Politics blog, Carl Minzner writes about proposed reforms to the hukou system in China:
Chinese authorities are considering reforms to the Chinese hukou (household registration) system. Proposed reforms would strengthen the system of temporary residence permits, expand the ability of the spouses and elderly parents of urban residents to relocate to China’s cities, and use the criteria of a “fixed, legal place of residence” as the touchstone for determining whether rural migrants can shift their hukou to urban areas.
Chinese scholars and officials note that the above reforms are merely under consideration. They also note that these reforms would not themselves address the pervasive linkage of hukou registration to a wide range of social and economic benefits, nor the resulting systematic discrimination against rural residents and migrants. But the proposed criteria for migrants to obtain hukou in urban areas do appear to be a mild liberalization over prior formulations used by Chinese authorities in the past. [Full text]
– See also a China Daily article about the proposed reforms.
