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Selecting Possible Articles

Area

Migrant Labor in China

Migration in China

• How working on it could prepare me for my PE?
  • This article can be helpful for my PE because it contains a variety of information about the migration in China, including its history, causes, social impacts and policy theories
• Ideas for adding, editing, and improving this article?
  • I first intend to edit its lead.
  • I also intend to adjust its overall structure.
  • I intend to work on the sections "causes," "social impacts," and "policy theories."
  • As shown on its talk page, this article is rated as start-class. This means it requires a variety of improvements, including source check, reference check, content check, organization check, grammar and spelling and writing style check.

Left-behind Children in China

• How working on it could prepare me for my PE?
  • This article can be helpful for my PE as it allows me to work on the issues of the left-behind children in mainland China. Those issues are important as they are the social impacts of the internal migration in mainland China.

• Ideas for adding, editing, and improving this article?
  • I edited the grammar and writing style of its introduction before. However, I still intend to edit and add more information especially to the section "impact."

Women in China

• How working on it could prepare me for my PE?
  • This article can be helpful for preparing my understanding of the issues faced by the female (migrant) labors in mainland China.

• Ideas for adding, editing, and improving this article?
  • I intend to work on the section "employment" particularly.

Relevant Sectors

Hukou System

• How working on it could prepare me for my PE?
  • This article can be helpful for my PE as it provides a variety of information about the hukou system in the mainland China, a crucial factor that caused internal migration in mainland China in the first place.

• Ideas for adding, editing, and improving this article?
  • I intend to work on the section "household registration in mainland China." In particular of its subsections "rationale and function," "challenges faced by migrant workers in the market," and "children of migrant workers."
  • As shown on its talk page, this article requries various improvement, including grammar and spelling check and clean-up, and source check

All-China Federation of Trade Unions\

• How working on it could prepare me for my PE?
  • This article can help me know more about the trade union laws in mainland China. Specifically, what they aim to protect the workers, whether or not they are strictly implemented, and what influences they have on migrant labors.

• Ideas for adding, editing, and improving this article?
  • Expand the lead.
  • Add a section of its effects, particularily about how and whether or not the union has represented the (migrant) workers' rights and interests, and what challenges has the union been facing.

Evaluating Two Articles

Area

Migration in China

Rating

As shown on its talk page, this article is rated as start-class. This means it requires a variety of improvements, including source check, reference check, content check, organization check, grammar and spelling and writing style check.

Writing check

1. This article contains multiple grammar mistakes.
2. This article contains various writing flaws:
   1. The lead:
      • The lead contains various writing flaws. For instance, the last sentence "The other factors influencing migration of people from rural provincial areas to large cities are employment, education, business opportunites and higher standard of living." I wonder if it would be more clearly if it was changed to the follow: "Many rural residents migrate to urban areas in hope to gain a higher standard of living, which refers to a more qualitative education, a higher wage job, and possibility more business opportunities."
      • The sentence "This population of migrations would represent 'almost 40 percent of the total urban population," a number which is almost three times the current level" can be changed to the following: "This migrant population is 'almost 40 percent of the total urban population," which is three times higher than the current level." However, the phrase "current level" can be misleading, because it refers to either 2008 or 2009, but not the current year 2018.
      • The sentence "While it is often difficult to collect accurate statistical data on migrant floating populations, the number of migrants is undoubtedly quite large" can be combined with its following sentence, the source of it.
      • In the middle of its first paragraph, there is a sentence that explains who the migrants are, i.e., the "floating population." The next sentence then mentions how the migrants are treated. However, the sentence after its next sentence goes back to talk about who the migrants are, that is, those who carry the rural hukou. In this respect, these three sentences are in a disorder. It would be more clearly to put the first and the third next to each other, and then the second after.
      • It mentions the relation between migration and urbanization. However, it seems to be more appropriate to put this piece of information in the first paragraph, as it can be used to demonstrate how the migratiare two caused after the economic reform.
      • This lead contains a lot of data. However, the order of the data requires reorganization.
      • Because the article's content begins with the section "history and origins," I wonder if it would be more clearly to first introduce the historical phenomenon of migration, which was not associated with the economic reform in 1978. It then would draw on the contemporary phenomenon of migration, which happened under the economic reform.

Organization check

The article's organization can be improved in various ways:

1. The section "People's Republic of China:"
   • can be further divided into two more subsections: "Before the economic reform" and "Post economic reform." By doing so, it can demonstrate the close relation between the migration in mainland China and the economic reform in 1979. Meanwhile, it can show how the migration before the economic reform was different from the migration aftre the economic reform. An example can be the following, though it is subject to change:
     • 1.2 People's Republic of China
       • .1.2.1 Before the economic reform
         • 1.2.1.1 Before the hukou system
         • 1.2.1.2 After the establishment of the hukou system
         • 1.2.1.3 The people's commune system
       • 1.2.2 Post-economimc reform
         • 1.2.2.1 Major periods
2. The section "causes:"
   • One example of rearranging this section can be the follow:
     • 3 Key Causes
       • 3.1 The hukou system
       • 3.2 The economic reform in the 1978
         • 3.2.1 In search for livelihoods and well-being (include the original subsection "income gap")
         • 3.2.2 In search for self-identity (include the original lead of the section)
       • 3.3 The role of Guanxi in migration (include the original subsection "Migrant networks")
3. The sections "Benefits and costs" and "social impacts:"
   • I wonder if the name of this section would convey a connotation that is different from the original connotation. The original article seems to associate "impact" with a negative connotation, as its information entails. However, some may associate "impact" with a more positive connotation. In this case, I suggest either to rename this section, or to combine it with the previous section "Benefits and costs," or to do both. If do both, then I suggest the follows. First, rename the section "benefits and costs" as "Social impacts," and put the original subsection "benefits" into this section. Secondly, rename the section "social impacts" as "social issues," and put the original subsection "costs" and the subsections of the original section "social impacts" into this new section. An example is shown in the follow (more information in my section "content check"):
     • 4 Social impacts (include the original subsection "benefits")
     • 5 Social issues (include the original subsection "costs")
       • 5.1 Inequity to migrant labors (include the original subsectioni "violations of labor standards")
       • 5.2 Health issues
         • 5.2.1 Mental health issues
       • 5.3 Class issues (include the original subsection "class and inequality")Gender issues
       • 5.4 Education issues
       • 5.5 The Left-behind population
         • 5.5.1 Left-behind children
         • 5.5.2 Left-behind women
       • 5.6 Challenges to government (include the original subsection "labor supply;" but I suggest to put this subsection at the end of this section, because I do not want to convey a message that the challenges to government are more important than the challenges to the workers.

Content check

Multiple sections require deeper elaboration and greater expansion.

1. The lead:
   • The lead starts off by talking about the internal migration under the economic reform in mainland China. However, its content not only talks about the migration under the economic reform, but also the migration before that. In this resepct, this beginning is misleading.
   • While the title of the article is called "migration in China,"the lead starts off by taking about the "internal migration" in mainland China, which is only one aspect of the broad topics of migration. In this case, I wonder if it would be more clearly if it began by introducing the general phenomenon of migration in mainland China, and then how migration in mainland China is often manifested as internal migration.
   • Instead of going straightfoward to introduce how the internal migration in mainland China is extensive, I wonder if it would be more clearly if it introduced what the phenomenon is, and how it happened in the first place. In this respect, the lead seems to preassume that its readers already know something about the phenomena.
   • The second paragraph seems to contain repeated information and data.
   • The article's overall content begins with the section "history and origins." In this case, instead of starting off the lead by going straightforward to the contemporary phenomenon of migration, I wonder if it would be more clearly if it first introduced the historical phenomenon of migration in mainland China (e.g., how it originally happened), and then how the phenomenon has changed in the contemporary (e.g., how migration has changed under the economic reform in 1978). In other words, the lead should go slower.
   • The first sentence in the section "People's Republic of China," which starts off the paragraph by contrasting the migration in mainland China with the migration in other developing countries on the basis of the hukou system. This contrast seems to be unnecessary. On the one hand, this section is about the historical background of the migration in mainland China, but not about the general phenomenon of migration in developing countires. Even if this information is helpful, it needs not be put in the beginning of the section. On the other hand, if that section brings up the phenomenon of migration in other developing countries, then it would also need to elaborate that phenomenon, which is mostly irrevelant to that section.
   • I wonder if the term "excluded," which is in the lead's first paragraph, would sound a little bit forceful.
   • The part "their lack of hukou status" is not accurate. For most migrants, it is not their lack of hukou that prevents their access to urban resouces, but their lack of an urban hukou. Hence, what that part should be is "their lack of an urban hukou status."
   • The first paragraph's last sentence seems to be misleading. I wonder if it would be more clearly if it was the following: "Not all rural migrants migrate from rural areas; those who are born and live in urban areas but carry a rural hukou are also classified as rural migrants." This is piece of information is drawn from the page http://www.clb.org.hk/content/migrant-workers-and-their-children . Maybe most information from that page is trustworthy, as it is written by people who work on migrant right advocacy, including activists and lawyers. However, I wonder if the information drawn from state reports (http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2018-01-29/doc-ifyqyqni4874246.shtml) which is considered primary source, is completely reliable.
   • Some quotes are too long. For instance, the second sentence in the first paragraph. It is more appropriate to paraphrase it.
2. The section "social impacts:"
   • The subsections in this section are not named very clearly. Specifically, while some subsections directly convey a negative connoation (e.g., "violations of labor standards" and "class and inequality" and "left-behind children"), others do not do so (e.g., all other subsections).
   • The subsection "mental health" simplifies the complex issue of mental health of the migrants. Specifically, while some researchers have found that some migrants are not associated with higher mental health problems than nonmigrants, others have found that some migrants indeed experience high stress under certain circustances, such as having high workload. Meanwhile, some have found that left-behind children also experience high rate of anxiety and depression.
   • The subsection "labor supply" is not clear. Specifically, its title is not directly relevant to its information. Based on its information, I wonder if "economic costs" would convey a more clearly message about its information. And it includes such a long sentence, which should be paraphrased instead.
   • The subsection "violations of labor standards" is much longer than other subsections. In other words, an imbalant amount of information. Meanwhile, its title also is vague. What is labor standard? Whose standard? According to its information, I wonder if "inequity to migrant labors" would be more clearly? However, I wonder if the term "inequity" would a biased connoation. Moreover, because I think the issue of social insurance mentioned in this subsection is relevant to the subsection "health," I suggest to put this subsections next to each other.
3. The section "causes:"
   • The causes already mentioned in this section may be part of the causes behind the migration in mainland China. However, many researches have shown that they are not the most primary ones. Rather, the hukou system and the economic reform in 1978 have been identified as the most key causes of the migration.
   • Because the migration in mainland China is a complex phenomenon associated with various causes, I wonder if I would be more clearly to rename this section as "key causes."
   • By identifying "surplus labor" as the first subsection, I wonder if it would convey a message that migration is a natural and inevitable effect followed surplus labor. In other words, I wonder if it would undermine the political factors behind the migration.
   • The lead of this section first identifies "the search of self-identity and self-transformation" as a key cause of the migration. Again, I wonder if it would convey a message that migration is more likely a personal choice. Although it is true that some researches have shown that many migrants, especially the youth, do migrate for the search of self-identity. However, it is more likely a variation; and some have shown that the most general cause of the migration is that many rural areas lack suffiecient resources for livelihoods and well-being. For instance, they do not have many profitable employments, and agricultural employment has become less and less profitable. Since this section already contains a subsection "income gap" that conveys a similar message, I wonder if it would be more clearly to add a subsection "In search of opportunities," and put "income gap" and other relevant causes as the sub-subsections.
   • I think it is more appropriate to rename the subsection "migrant networks" as "guanxi." In Chinese, "guanxi" is a term that plays a crucial role in social relations; and because social network is only one aspect of it, I think it would be more clearly to replace "networks" with "guanxi." For more informations of the role of "guanxi" in (migrant) labor, see. For the general understanding of "guanxi," its complex connotaions, its changes, the historical and political causes of its changes, and its continuous impacts on general Chinese people's life, see.

Source check

1. This artile contains some helpful and reliable sources.
   • Ping, Huang, and Pieke, Frank N. China Migration Country Study. Paper presented at The Regional Conference on Migration, Development and Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia, held in Dhaka, Bangladesh, June 2003, http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0903/Dhaka_CP_3.pdf

Sector

Hukou System

Rating

According to its talk page, this article is rated as Start-class as a WikiProject China. This means that it needs various kinds of improvement, including source check, grammar and writing style check.

Writing check

Organization check

Content check

Source check

Selecting Possible Sources

Notes

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Summarising and Synthesizing

The article on area: Migration in China

• I will specifically pay a close attention to the lead.
• There are three things that I intend to do for it: 1) To fix its grammar and writing style; 2) to rearrange its organization; and 3) to edit its content.
• My final draft is the following:
  • If migration is understood as any human movement from one area to another for live improvement, migration had occurred within China before the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. Some archaeological excavations suggest that the earliest can be dated back to around 5,000 BCE, in which people migrated primarily due to population growth, resource limitation and pressure. This kind of migration also had occurred shortly after the People’s Republic of China’s establishment in 1949. However, it was complicated by many other factors such as political pressure. For instance, millions of Nationalists moved to Taiwan or Hong Kong after the Communist establishment of the People’s Republic of China, both for livelihoods and political safety. Meanwhile, under the leadership of the first Communist leader Mao Zedong, the migration within mainland China was also complicated by the Communist government’s own political movements. For instance, when the Great Leap Forward movement (1958-1961) was launched by Mao who attempted to speed up China’s industrialization at the time, many heavy industries in urban areas welcomed rural migrant labors. However, because everyone was asked to participate in steelmaking during that movement, there in turned was a massive famine that had caused tens of millions of deaths, as almost nodoby was engaged in farming. There hence was a subsequent migration within mainland China, in which many moved to cities for a search of livelihoods. Another political movement relevant to the migration within mainland China is the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (or simply “Cultural Revolution”) (1966-1977). During that movement, about 17 million urban youths, who were called “zhi-qing,” or educated youths, were sent to rural areas to engaging in the anti-bourgeois movement by participating in rural life. It was not until Mao’s death in 1976 that the movement was officially ended, and that the youths were able to move back to the cities. There thus were massive migrations both in 1966, when the instance first happened, and in 1977, when the instance officially ended.
  • Following Mao's death, the successor of Mao, Deng Xiaoping, became the leader of the Communist Party and implemented the economic reform in 1978 to create economic development and growth. When it was first implemented, this reform did not attract many rural labors to move to the cities, as there was an increase of agricultural productivity and income. It was not until the mid-1980s that there was a large population of rural-to-urban migration, mostly due to the stagnant of rural incomes. Many rural labors particularly moved to the “special economic zones” such as Shenzhen, which were fundamentally designed to attract foreign companies and foreign-invested factories with special business-oriented policies such as tax breaks. These cities were still attractive to rural labors in various ways; for instance, there were more (lucrative) job opportunities. This is still the case in today. From the mid-1980s to today, the job opportunities in cities have particularly attracted those already have a family. Meanwhile, there have gradually been more single rural youths moving to the cities. However, they are not only attracted to the cities’ economic sources, but also to the attraction of city life, the pursuit of independence, and so on. According to a 2016 report conducted by the National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, 3.3 % of the rural labors aged between 16 to 20 years old; 28.6% between 21 to 30 years old; 22% between 31 to 40 years old; 27 % between 41 to 50 years old; and 19.2% were older than 50. This suggests that the able-bodied population (from 16 to 40 years old, let’s say) has been getting larger and larger (about 53.9%) than the less able-bodied population (beyond 41 years old) (about 46.1%). Moreover, the same report concludes that the female population of migrant labors had increased in 2016. Some scholars have suggested that may be this is because migration is not only seen by some females as an opportunity for individual development, but also for getting away from home (particularly when they are engaged in arranged marriage). Nevertheless, in 2016, the total male population of migrant labors was still larger than the total female rural migrant population: The former was counted about 65.5% and the latter about 34.5%. Furthermore, the same report also suggests that there was an increase in migration among educated youths in 2016. After all, over the last forty decades since the reform, China’s economic development has been largely contributed by its rural-to-urban migrant labors. While it is often difficult to collect accurate statistical data on China’s migrant population, the number of it is undoubtedly large. In 1999, it was already suspected that “at least one out of every five persons is a migrant.” In 2015, there was already a total of 277.5 million migrant workers (36% of the total workforce of 770 million). Out of these, those who left their hometown and worked in other provinces accounted for about 158.63 million (there was a 3.4% increase, in comparison with the total in 2010); and others who worked within their home provinces reached about 94.15 million (there was a 5.9% increase, in comparison with the total in 2010). At the end of 2016, there was about 281.71 million of rural migrant labors in mainland China. It is estimated that Chinese cities as a whole will face an influx of another 243 million migrants by 2025, taking the total urban population up to nearly 1 billion people. This population of migrants would represent "almost 40 percent of the total urban population," a number which is almost three times the current level. Such a massive migration in a short period since the form (about forty decades) is often considered as “one of the most extensive in the world” and probably “the largest in human history."
  • Regardless of their contribution to China's development, many migrant labors in mainland China have been commonly facing various disadvantages. A key factor is a household registration system called “hukou.” Just as its first implementation in 1951, the hukou is a system for managing and deploying labors. Under the hukou system, people are categorized into either an agricultural/rural or non-agricultural/urban household based on their residence. However, along with other policies, it is also implicitly a division system of social status and life chances. For instance, during the Maoist period (1949-1976), while those with urban hukou were able to work and live in a state work unit called “danwei,” which not only offered workers lifelong employment but also various welfares such as housing, those with rural household were not given the same opportunity and were mostly kept in rural areas for agricultural work. Meanwhile, in today, given their lack of urban hukou, many rural labors do not have any urban residency rights such as hospital care, and many are required to work long hours and for low wages. Such a lack of welfare entitlements may be a key factor why many rural migrants do not bring their family to the cities, as their child(ren) would not be able to enjoy any welfares, including the free nine-year education (six years for elementary education and three for middle school education). Many migrant families hence have to be split. One typical pattern is that the kid(s) and the elderly—sometimes the mother as well—would stay in the rural area while the able-bodied—can be just the father, or both the mother and the father—would work as the wage-earners in cities. Under this circumstance, there has been a large “left-behind population”—usually the child(ren), the elderly, and the women—in the last several decades. Moreover, in addition to the rural migrants who move to cities, there is also a group of people who do not come from rural areas but are considered rural migrants because they carry a rural hukou. These people can also have limited access to various urban residency rights. Given rural migrants’ status of neither residing in their registered residency nor settling down in urban areas, they are officially identified by the government as “liu dong ren kou,” or “floating population."
  • This, however, does not mean that the government has not put effort into improving rural migrants’ living conditions and welfare entitlements in cities. For instance, the state has implemented a variety of policies to improve the hukou system over the past few decades since the reform in 1978. The most recent hukou reform policy is called the “National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020),” which was implemented in 2014 with the aim to tackle problems derived from China’s fast urbanization process. One outstanding goal of this plan is to offer at least 90% (about 100 million) of rural migrants a variety of urban welfares (such as education and health care) while they live in cities by 2020. In fact, under this policy, some left-behind children have been granted the right to attend urban schools, which enables them to reunite with their rural migrant parents who live and work in cities. Accordingly, by 2016, about 28.9 million rural migrants living in cities have been granted with urban hukou. However, some scholars have pointed out that the state’s motivations behind the reforms are not entirely people-oriented. In part, it is because the state has recognized rural migrants’ key role in economic development, who are seen as immediate sources for creating economical growth. Meanwhile, it is also because the state has been under a variety of pressures. For instance, some local governments have pointed out the potential problems that have been derived from rural-to-urban migration, including resource strain; some employers have also argued that the hukou is a barrier of market economy; and some rural migrant labors have also protested against their unequal treatments under the hukou system.
  • In addition to the hukou reform policies, the state also has put effort into improving rural migrant labors’ job conditions by implementing various of labor laws. For instance, in 2007, the state implemented both the Labor Contract Law and the Employment Promotion Law, which required employers to treat all workers, including rural migrant labors, fairly by signing an official contract with them. Some scholars have pointed out that the Labor Contract Law has sufficiently assisted migrant labors who have been facing disadvantages in cities. However, some have also asked why many employees are still not offered a formal contract despite the Law requires employers to do so. In short, the state’s effort in improving rural migrants’ life conditions is not deniable, and it is also undeniable that policies alone are not sufficient to change the whole story. However, it is still worth asking the question whether or not the state has tried to address the fundamental causes of those unequal treatments to rural migrants in the first place, that is, the way how they are seen and how they are categorized under the rural/urban division system.

The article on sector: Hukou System

• I intend to work on the section "reform" by adding more information and fixing its grammar and writing style. My final draft will be the following:
  • Over the past few decades since the economic reform in 1978, the state of the People’s Republic of China has taken steps toward reforming the hukou system by implementing a variety of reform policies. 1979-1991 can be identified as the first reform period. Specifically, in October 1984, the state issued a document called “A Document on the Issue of Peasants Settling Down in Cities,” which required local governments to integrate rural migrants as part of their urban population and to enable rural migrants to register in their migrant cities. In 1985, the state also implemented a policy called “Interim Provisions on the Management of Transient Population in Cities,” which allowed rural migrants to stay in their migrant cities even if they had neither changed their hukou status nor returned to their original rural residency. In the same year, the state also published a document called “The Regulations on Resident Identity Card,” which enabled rural migrants to work in cities even if they did not carry an identity card of urban status. However, what followed these policies was not only a 30 million rural-to-urban migration, but also a phenomenon in which many false urban identity cards were sold to rural migrants for gaining urban benefits. It hence stimulated the state to implement another policy, “A Notice on Strictly Controlling Excessive Growth of ‘Urbanization,’” in 1989 for regulating rural-to-urban migration. Under this policy, rural migrants were monitored again.
  • 1992-2013 can be identified as the second hukou reform period. There were various kinds of reform implemented by the state to reforming the hukou system. Beginning in the late 1980s, one was to offer a “lan yin,” or “blue stamp,” hukou to those who possess professional skills and/or ability to make some sort of investments (at least 100 million Renminbi yuan) in specific cities (usually the big cities such as Shanghai), allowing them to enjoy urban welfare entitlements.This “blue stamp hukou” was then conducted by many other big cities (including Nanjing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen) in 1999. The second kind was not applied to big cities but to certain selected towns and small cities. In 1997, the state implemented a policy that granted urban hukou to the rural migrants who had a stable job in their newly resided towns and small cities. Meanwhile, according to two 1997 government documents, the “Pilot Scheme for Reform of the Hukou System in Small Towns” and “Instructions on Improving the Management of Rural Hukou System,” rural migrant workers could register as permanent residents with equal access to urban privileges in certain small towns. These policies were then made official in 2012 with the state document “Notice on Actively Yet Prudently Pushing Forward the Reform of Hukou System Management." Moreover, in 1999, the state also allowed more groups of people to gain urban hukou, including children whose parent(s) had urban hukou, and the elderly whose child(ren) had been granted with urban hukou. The third kind was applied to the special zones and districts that were established particularly for economic growth (such as Shenzhen). Specifically, in 1992, the state allowed all people living in the special zones and districts to carry two hukous: Their original hukou and another hukou related to their job in the special zones and districts. This policy hence made it easier for rural migrants to gain access to different urban opportunities in the special zones and districts. However, in 2003, state published the “Administrative Permit Laws,” which sent rural migrants back to their original residency in rural areas. Under this policy, rural migrants’ life chances were once again determined by their hukou status.
  • The third reform period began in 2014, in which the state published and implemented the “National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)” in March to tackle various problems derived from China’s fast urbanization process. For instance, the plan aims to shorten the 17.3% gap between urban residents who live in cities but do not carry urban hukou and urban residents with urban hukou in 2012 by 2% by 2020. Meanwhile, the plan also intends to offer welfare entitlements to people who have rural hukou (from rural migrants to urban residents who carry rural hukou), including education, welfare housing, and health care to at least 90% (about 100 million) of migrants by 2020. In fact, with this plan, the state have been putting effort into achieving their goals. For instance, the state has granted many left-behind children the right to attend urban schools so that they can reunite with their rural migrant parents; it has also offered many rural migrants job training. Moreover, in July of the same year, the government also published “Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform of the Hukou System" to abolish the hukou restrictions in towns and small cities, to gradually remove the restrictions middle-sized cities, to relax the restrictions in big cities, but to maintain the restrictions in the very large cities. As a result, according to an announcement of the Ministry of Public Security, by 2016, the state has already issued urban hukou to about 28.9 million rural migrants. Furthermore, in 2016, the local government of Beijing announced that they would abolish the official distinction between urban hukou and non-urban hukou within Beijing, meaning that all residents living in Beijing will be identified as Beijing residents regardless of their original hukou status. Having said that, in November 2017, the government of Beijing implemented a “clean-up” campaign that intended to send millions of rural migrants back to their original rural areas. Although this campaign was claimed by the local government as a way of getting rid of the unsafe structures in Beijing, where many (at least 8.2 million in total) rural migrants living in, some considered it as a way of “cleaning up,” as it happened shortly after the fire of an unsafe building in Beijing.
  • The state’s effort in improving the hukou system is not deniable; and it is also undeniable that those reforms alone cannot solve all problems arising from the hukou system. However, some questions are still worth mentioning; for instance, have the reforms mentioned above applied to the majority of rural-to-urban migrants? This question can be raised regarding the policies in all three reform periods mentioned above. Specifically, it seems obvious that many reform policies, especially those during the first and second periods, require rural migrants to possess some sorts of capital, either human capitals (e.g., professional skills and titles) or property capitals (e.g., the ability to become an urban homeowner) or both. Some scholars hence also call some reform policies as ways of "selling" hukou. Meanwhile, many migrants have claimed that their lack of social networks (part of what is called “guan xi”)—which in some sense is also accumulated with wealth—also has made it harder for them to find a stable job, let alone a lucrative job. Hence, if wealth is a precondition to change from rural hukou to urban hukou, many rural migrants indeed are unable to gain that access, as many are “unskilled” (because many's skills, such as farming, are not categorized as professional skills) and poor. However, in some large cities, even if a rural migrant does carry certain professional skills, it is not a guarantee that one will be granted with urban hukou. This situation is particularly revealed from many highly educated migrants. Despite of their education background, many would not be granted with urban hukou unless they become a homeowner. However, given the high price of real estate in many large cities (e.g., Beijing; Shanghai; Guangzhou), many are unable to do so even if some cities do offer housing subsidies to migrants. Given their lack of urban hukou, many not only face the difficulty of purchasing an apartment—let alone purchasing a house—but also the disadvantage of being a renter. Because of the lack of rent control in many large cities, even if one rents a room—or rarely, an apartment—one can face the possibility of being asked to leave. Many those educated migrant youths hence are also called “yi zu,” or literally “a group of ants,” as many do not have their own room and have to live in a tiny room with many others.
  • It hence is worth asking the question whether or not the hukou system has been sufficiently improved to a more people-centered system. In fact, many large cities are still strict about granting rural migrants with urban hukou and about using the hukou system to determine whether or not one should be granted with welfare entitlements. Even if the “National New-type Urbanization Plan (2014-2020)” and the “Opinions on Further Promoting the Reform of the Hukou System” implemented in the third reform period intend to create a more people-centered system, they claim that larger cities should have different hukou registration systems from the smaller cities and towns; and that the hukou regulation will continue to be stricter in larger cities. However, the very large cities (e.g., Beijing) are usually the ones that attract rural migrants the most, given their extensive job opportunities. In this case, although the state has actively implemented many reform policies, the hukou rural/urban division still functions and represents a division system of life chances. Some scholars hence have argued that the hukou reforms indeed have not fundamentally changed the hukou system but have only decentralized the powers of hukou to local governments; and it still remains active and continues to contribute to China's rural and urban disparity. Meanwhile, others have also argued that by concentrating on cities, the hukou reforms have failed to target the poorer regions, where social welfares such as education and medical care are often not offered to the residents. Still, others seem excited, remarking that some cities have been offering a condition that encourages more migrant parents to bring their children along. In short, the majority of rural migrants thus are still largely overlooked due to their lack to urban hukou, which is often seen as starting point for gaining access to life well-beings.