opportunity-china.co.uk
December 2014
11
B
ig cities aren’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for
newcomers as the influx of migrants has put huge
pressure on public resources. Manymigrants are
left without access to vital public services. Yet job
prospects within the country’s largest cities, such
as Shanghai, Beijing and Shenzhen, continue to luremigrant
workers and college graduates.
China’s small andmedium sized cities will be themajor
destinations for China’s futuremigrant population; moremust
be done to accommodate the farmers-turned city dwellers as
they abandon their land and head to the city in the hope of a
better life. But the big question facing the country’s leaders is
how tomake cities friendlier tomigrants in the context of such
rapid urbanisation.
Arguably, themost critical issue for the hundreds of
thousands of migrants flowing into the country’s cities is access
to government services, specifically healthcare for themselves
and their families and education for their children. Increasing
the amount of access that migrants have to public services
is a priority for the central government going forwardbut the
country’s establishedhousehold registration system, the hukou,
is something of an obstacle.
According to Shanghai-based financial magazine Value Line,
Shanghai is themost popular city formigrants inChinawith
the total net inflow population reaching 9.54million; suggesting
that the city has somehow found the answer to the question
of how tomake citiesmoremigrant friendly. However, John
Bacon-Shone, AssociateDean of Social Sciences andDirector
of the Social Sciences ResearchCenter at theUniversity of
Hong Kong, believes Shenzhenprovides a better example for
creating a friendlier city.
“I suspect (Shanghai) is not particularlymigrant friendly at this point,” notes
Bacon-Shone, adding that the influx of migrant workers is “overwhelmingly
to dowith jobs.” Although job opportunities are themain factor in Shanghai’s
popularity amongst migrants, public services still play a part in the decision-
making process when people decide to relocate from rural areas to the city.
Bacon-Shone explains, “The extent towhich you can also access government
services is important. Shenzhen has amore flexible approach to that so I think
even though Shenzhen probably doesn’t have as good job opportunities as
Shanghai, it can still compete to some extent by its greater flexibility in terms of
allowing people to have registration in that area.”
Two key debates arising from the conversation on urbanisation centred on the
topics of regional integration (see page 12) and hukou reform. The hukou system
itself has created a culture of unfairness within cities, effectively creating second-
class citizens who are poor and have inadequate access to public services
despite the fact that they are adding to the country’s wealth and development.
As Bacon-Shone asserts, “The hukou system is a source of inefficiency and
corruption, so in general, getting rid of it is a good idea in the long run; the
question is how you get from here to there.”
Thewidespread reliance on the hukou systemmeans it is hard to abolish
immediately, though a points-based scheme represents a step in the direction
towards slowly phasing out the system, with the idea being that you gradually
decrease the point score needed to gain residency in the cities. At the very least,
as Bacon-Shone notes, a points-based system represents a “process” which is
attempting tomake it more feasible for people to be allowed to live andwork in
different places.
There is often talk about concerns among local residents as a result of the
pressure put on local resources by inflows of people. As for whether a points-
based systemwould be effective in addressing such concerns at the same
time as increasing access amongst themigrant population, Professor LuMing,
Director of the China Center for EconomicDevelopment at Shanghai Jiaotong
University believes that focusing on the topic of a points-based system leads
people to avoid the actual issue at hand.
AsChinapressesahead
with itsmassiveand
ambitiousurbanisation
plan,policymakerswill
soonbe forced toconfront
the taskofmakingChinese
cities friendlier to the large
migratingpopulation.
Thehukou system itself hascreated
acultureof unfairnesswithincities,
effectivelycreating second-classcitizens
whoarepoor andhave inadequate
access topublic servicesdespite the fact
that theyareadding to thecountry’s
wealthanddevelopment.
