Hukou Reform and the “Luohu” of Rural Migrants in Urban China

Ming Tian (), Qingwen Xu, Zhigang Li and Yang Yu
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Ming Tian: School of Social Development and Public Policy, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
Qingwen Xu: Silver School of Social Work, New York University, New York, NY 10012, USA
Zhigang Li: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430062, China
Yang Yu: School of Urban Design, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430062, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-10

Abstract: Along with a series of reforms of the household registration, or the hukou system, there has been a sustained call for its reforms to further integrate rural migrants into cities and sustain the national strategy of urbanization. Nevertheless, does hukou still matter? Is it still a major obstacle to the inclusive development of post-reform urban China? Recently, the effect of the hukou system and its reforms has become a debatable topic. To address the question, in this article, we examine the “luohu” of rural migrants, i.e., rural people who work and/or live in the city obtaining urban hukou, to evaluate the effects of hukou reforms. We argue, along with the improvement of China’s social security system in both urban and rural areas, as well as the increased rights of rural migrants in cities, that the gap between the “value” of urban and rural hukou is decreasing: the boundaries set between urban and rural territories have been diminished; meanwhile, the intentions of rural migrants to luohu in the city have declined. This dilemma indicates that the impact of hukou system per se is fading, which is closely linked to the reforms of other social policies such as welfare and pension systems. As such, to promote the integration of rural migrants in Chinese cities, the focus of China’s hukou reforms should shift from the registration system to more inclusive social policies.

Keywords: household registration (hukou) system; rural migrants; urbanization; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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