Inclusion of rural-urban migrants in China: is removing hukou the solution?

Abstract

Despite of the reform in the Hukou system, rural-urban migrants are not yet able to escape social exclusion easily. The problems change over time. New issues continue to emerge. The form of exclusion is not only limited to institutional barriers for social participation. There are also functional exclusion and social discrimination. Some of them can be removed by removing Hukou. However, there are various conditions and technical hurdles to be overcome before there can be greater degree of social integration. It is getting clearer that treating the related problems as local problems and only for rural-urban migrants is insufficient. There need to be more coordination across different cities and solutions need to take into account the interactions between rural and urban areas