China’s internal passport system – known as ‘Hukou’ – prevents permanent migration to urban areas.  Some 120 million unofficial urban residents are denied access to many services. In rural areas land requisition policies and lack of secure tenure reduce agricultural production, create resentment and help drive more families to the cities.

Researchers from the University of Oxford, in the UK, and China’s Academy of Sciences have explored interrelationships between migration, land and livelihoods in China’s economic transition.

China’s labour mobility pattern is unique – in other developing countries, permanent family migration into urban areas plays a central role in urbanisation. In China, however, rural migrant workers cannot access the same level of welfare and housing benefits as official urban residents. Migrants can only obtain an urban residence card if they buy a house and pay to access urban infrastructure and facilities. Few can afford to do so. The ‘hukou’ system contributes to growing inequalities between urban and rural living standards.

More and more rural land is being converted to urban or industrial uses. Although rural land is still collectively owned at the village level, land is rezoned for urban use through requisitions at prices unilaterally decided by local governments. Farmers who are dispossessed of land they have tilled and inadequately compensated complain bitterly.

The authors show how:

• Their insecure circumstances make rural migrants – even after years of primarily off-farm employment – unwilling to give up their entitlement to rural land and the future benefits it may bring.
• Migrants do not rent out their land for fear that this would encourage party cadres to reallocate it: this makes it harder for those left behind to consolidate land plots and increase production.
• Social problems are growing as most migrants cannot bring dependents to the cities: elderly relatives struggle to look after grandchildren, many of whom perform badly in rural schools and rarely see parents who work in distant coastal cities.

The government has recognised that land reallocation processes threaten economic sustainability and social stability. In some areas it is now harder for managers of industrial zones to take land from farmers. However, government policies have not been coordinated. Urban administrations – already struggling to provide safety nets for former workers from state-owned enterprises – resist pressures to extend housing and education benefits to migrants.

The researchers argue the need for a holistic approach to allow migrants to settle down in cities and obtain equal access to services. Reforms must be gradual to avoid a rush of surplus rural labour to the cities. They note that the ‘hukou’ system has helped China escape the high unemployment and urban slums typically found in developing countries.

They propose:

• setting transparent criteria – based on length of residence and income – for obtaining urban ‘hukou’
• establishing land offices in rural areas to issue certificates consolidating farmers’ legal rights over land use, transfer and disposal: such certificates could be traded and used as collateral
• financing mechanisms – including a tax on profits from rural land development – to enable city governments to provide social assistance, public housing and education to migrants so that they are willing to give up their land in rural areas
• ensuring compensation farmers receive when they lose land is based on market rates.

Source(s):
‘Urbanization, rural land system and social security for migrants in China’, Journal of Development Studies, 43:7, pages 1301-1320, by Ran Tao and Zhigang Xu, October 2007
‘Groping for Stones to Cross the River versus Coordinated Policy Reforms: The Case of Two Reforms in China’, The Journal of Policy Reform, vol 9, no. 3, pp. 177–201 by Ran Tao and Zhigang Xu, September 2006 (PDF) Full document.

Funded by: China National Science Foundation; The British Academy; Urban China Research Network

id21 Research Highlight: 19 August 2008

Further Information:
Ran Tao
Institute for Chinese Studies
University of Oxford
Clarendon Institute Building
Walton Street
Oxford, OX1 2HG
UK

Tel: +44 1865 28077
Fax: +44 1865 280435
Contact the contributor: Ran.tao@orinst.ox.ac.uk

Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford, UK

Zhigang Xu
Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP)
Academy of Sciences
Jia 11, Datun Road
Anwai
Beijing 100101
China

Tel: + 86 10 64889837
Fax: +86 10 64856533
Contact the contributor: zgxu.ccap@igsnrr.ac.cn

Centre for Chinese Agricultural Policy (CCAP), Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

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