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Phoebe Zhang

Starting in September, Wang Ming’s 12-year-old son will need to go to school in a city 120km (75 miles) from his home in Beijing.
Originally from northeastern China, Wang and his wife have lived in Beijing for more than 20 years.
But even though they work for a bank and an insurance company, they have never been able to obtain a hukou – the household registration document that serves as proof of residency and grants access to public services such as healthcare and education.
The hukou system has been in place for almost 70 years, allowing the authorities to effectively control the population and allocate resources.
For most people, their hukou is tied to their birthplace and to change it to where they live or work, they must meet a strict set of criteria.
The Wangs’ case is typical of hundreds of thousands living and working in the capital without a hukou. Although their son was allowed to attend primary and secondary school in the capital, he will have to take the college entrance exam in Liaoning province, where they are registered.
Other parents in a similar situation have chosen to send their children to live with their grandparents in their home province, but separation from parents can take a heavy psychological toll.
Wang decided that sending his son so far away from home would not be in the boy’s best interests. Instead, he will send him to a private boarding school in the neighbouring Hebei province.
“You cannot have the best of both worlds,” Wang said, explaining that every family decision had been meticulously planned. “If you want to have your child by your side, then he will be limited in his school choices.”
In recent years, the central government has been trying to ease residency restrictions. However, analysts warned that local authorities might have different priorities and be reluctant to implement the changes for financial reasons.
In May, the State Council, China’s cabinet, issued proposals to gradually decouple access to basic public services from the hukou, aiming to ensure that migrants could enjoy the same level of services as locals.
It called for workers to be enrolled in social insurance programmes in the cities where they worked, for expanding access to public rental housing and increased educational support for children moving with their parents.
Previously, the central government placed more emphasis on making it easier to register for a hukou, but it has now switched its focus to providing services to permanent residents regardless of registration, according to Wei Jiayu, director general of Beijing Sanzhi Shelter for Children in Distress, a non-profit organisation providing support to the children of migrant workers.
Some smaller cities have lowered the barriers to getting a hukou in recent years, but have not attracted as many new residents as they had hoped.

Instead, the number of migrant workers has continued to grow, passing the 357 million mark, according to census sample data published in May.
Many of these workers, lured by the booming digital economy and flexible working practices, have less incentive to get a hukou because they do not want to be tied to one particular place.
Nie Huihua, an economics professor at Beijing’s Renmin University, said the central government’s policy stemmed from the principle of allocating public resources according to the local permanent resident population, which was a correct, market-based approach.
“This is fair for regions with population outflow, because they shouldn’t have to be burdened with providing social security and healthcare benefits for those who have moved away,” he said. “It promotes the development of a unified national market, as the free movement of labour is a prerequisite.”
By tying public services to the hukou, local governments had more control over the size of their populations and often had a financial incentive for keeping the numbers down, Wei said.
Some cities, including Beijing, have been actively trying to limit the size of their populations.
In the past, policy documents from the Beijing government referred to efforts to reduce the number of “low-end” residents, and city authorities are trying to push for the development of neighbouring Hebei province and Tianjin city to help “relocate non-capital functions” away from Beijing.
Nie said it was logical for local governments to focus on the cost of providing services, especially during an economic downturn.
“But the crux of the issue lies in how to ensure the permanent resident population generates sufficient local fiscal revenue to cover the cost of providing public services,” he said.
Ultimately, local governments must have access to stable tax bases before they can assume the responsibility for providing public services, according to Nie.
He gave the example of the southern island province of Hainan, which is especially popular with retirees, saying the local authorities needed proper funding to provide proper medical and elderly care services.


Wei believes that in the long term, there are positive returns to attracting more workers.
“You need to provide better public services so people will come to the city and boost its economy,” he said, citing the example of Zhejiang province, which removed a lot of its hukou requirements in 2023 in the hope of attracting more workers.
But for people caught in the middle like Wang, there is no time to wait for long-term changes.
“Can we gamble [our son’s future] on the next few years?” he said. “Ideally, there may be the possibility that he’ll be able to go … to high school in Beijing, and take the test in Beijing. But who can bet on it?”


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China

Politics

At present, millions of workers cannot register in the cities where they work, limiting access to services such as health and education


At present, millions of workers cannot register in the cities where they work, limiting access to services such as health and education.


China's population

State Council

Renmin University of China

China’s hukou system reforms: will local government reluctance fail migrant workers?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}At present, millions of workers cannot register in the cities where they work, limiting access to services such as health and education

At present, millions of workers cannot register in the cities where they work, limiting access to services such as health and education