China to Ease Restrictions on Migrant Household Registrations
Yicai Global
DATE:  Feb 22 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
China to Ease Restrictions on Migrant Household Registrations China to Ease Restrictions on Migrant Household Registrations

(Yicai Global) Feb. 22 -- China plans to ease or lift restrictions on domestic migrant applications for residence registration in new cities to accelerate urban development.

The government wants to promote orderly domestic immigration to ensure rational distribution of the population, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, said in a document published yesterday. Some major cities will be excluded from the plans.

The unified system also aims to integrate human resource management between cities and provinces and help build a public employment service platform, the document added.

China's household registry system dates back to ancient times, but since 1958, nine years after the establishment of the People's Republic of China, it has been a nationwide legal system used to log citizens' personal data, births, deaths and legal addresses.

But drawbacks of the system have been emerging since China's reform began in 1978 and large portions of the population started moving to urban areas. Social welfare is based on citizens' place of origin, which has led to vast inequality across the country. Many migrant workers in big cities are unable to claim benefits there as they are registered in their rural hometowns -- where wages are lower and local welfare may be limited if existent at all.

The NDRC document did not disclose which cities will be exempt from the lifted or eased restrictions, but it will likely include at least Shanghai and Beijing -- China's two largest cities.

Editor: James Boynton

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Keywords:   Household Registration System Reform,Hukou