Hukou system

Similar registration systems is also available in Taiwan (also called hukou ) and in other East Asian countries:

• Japan ( Koseki and Juminhyo )
• North and South Korea ( Hoju )
• Vietnam ( Ho Khau )

Translation

The direct translation by dictionary is " registered permanent residence " or " number of households and the total population ", but does not include the importance of a system. Sebastian Heilmann used in his book " The political system of the People's Republic of China" translations " system of state household registration " and " residence control".

Mao era

In the Mao era, the strict control of residence and forced immobility of the population was a key part of controlling the population. The stay in the assigned place of residence was a prerequisite for any type of employment and the allocation of food and other essential consumer goods.

Current Situation

After the reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping, there was some citizens possible, unofficially move. These reforms have also created incentives to move into the more rapidly developing coastal regions.

Although the majority of the population is still officially tied to the assigned place, today there are probably 150 to 200 million Chinese who live in other places. For example, living in Guangzhou more than three million people who are not officially citizens of the city. These newcomers can not report in their new place of residence due to their official bond to another location. Therefore, they have less access to education and, among other social services.

Effects

The hukou system has meant that in Chinese suburban regions no larger slums have emerged, mainly because of the rural population, a move to cities was forbidden. This rule has also contributed to the strong social differences between urban and rural areas and excluded the rural population of the since the fifties of the urban population enjoyed privileges.

These privileges include, for example, free access to educational institutions such as schools and universities, social services and the mobilization of the rural health insurance. The latter is only for treatments at the residence. The prescribed since 2008 health insurance through the employer is in fact undermined for migrant workers, since they are usually employed without a contract.

In the cities by a class of unofficial citizens has emerged, which is a disadvantage compared to the reported population. Because of the relatively high dependence on their employers and the lower wages in their home they are often exploited as cheap labor.

In the so-called PISA test this system leads to a possible bias towards other states, since a considerable part of the 15 -year-old is not considered in the tests de facto, since they have restricted access to the educational institutions receive.

Reforms

From 1982 onwards was based on the hukou system a Inhaftierungspraxis of " Custody and Repatriation " in force. Then the police could detain people for months without residence or work permit in camps and use them to serious work, to then return to their hometown. As it after the death of the young fashion designer Sun Zhigang were violent protests in 2003, this scheme was abolished.

Although the hukou system is also seen in the People's Republic of China as unfair, reforms are still controversial. It is feared that it will come at a reform to a large pressure on the cities by masses of evacuees. This would mean that the already overburdened social systems will collapse in the cities and economic development could be slowed in rural areas by the departure of the local elites continue.

After it came in the booming metropolitan areas in the coastal regions to a very large demand for labor, rural job seekers were allowed in large numbers for the first time to work in the cities, even if only temporarily. In some provinces, the hukou system is already being reformed, such as in Guangdong. In Guangzhou, there are now many residents who did not originally come from the city. Most of them come from other prefecture-level cities in Guangdong.

The city region in the northeastern Liaoning Shenyang, which also includes substantial rural areas has to be the first major city abolished the distinction between urban and rural hukou in early 2010 and thus also of the rural population gained access to better urban education, health care and social security.

In the city the population Chongqing rights were extended to approximately 3 million migrants from the rural hinterland between mid-2010 and late 2011. Chengdu lifted until the end of 2012 all the differences between the inhabitants of the city and the rural areas within its area of ​​responsibility. These reforms provide the Hukou not from, but to extend the privileges of all the inhabitants of the region.