province, the government claims that it will unify the hukou system such that all gain access to social benefits.22 But the government fails to mention whether the extent of benefits will be cut such that it is affordable. In fact, the government hopes that the reform will attract enough rural workers such that the new system is sustainable. Evidently, unequal access to social benefits due to legal exclusions has been the aim of many governments.
However, evidence suggests that despite reforms, rural migrants are unmoved. In 2010, the National Population and Family Planning Commission found from interviews done in 106 cities that only 26 percent of migrant workers were willing to change hukou.23 In Shijiazhuang of Hebei, only 69,000 out of two million registered for urban hukou after reform actually changed their status. The number decreased to less than a thousand by 2004.24 Similarly, peasants did not rush to change their status in Luoyang, Henan during the 2009 reform.25
There are several reasons why rural migrants are unmoved, none of which are addressed by hukou reform yet. For instance, a common reason for not changing hukou is that it entails giving up land rights. Because migrant workers’ wages cannot compete with the cost of living due to inflation, land becomes a means of living cheaply and independently. The concern contradicts one motivation for hukou reform; for some local governments need land to finance welfare programs or urbanisation. In addition, the social welfare is allocated on a city basis. This means that the benefits cannot follow the migrants as they move from one to another temporary position. Especially when temporary jobs fail to provide financially for moving one’s whole family such that stability is achieved, there is no incentive for the transferring
88822. M., Chan. “Migrants could be given equal footing in Zhejiang.” South China Morning Post, 2006.
88823. T., Miller. China's Urban Billion: The story behind the biggest migration in human history. Zed Books. Kindle Edition, 2012..
88824. Y., Zhu. “China's floating population and their settlement intention in the cities: Beyond the hukou reform.” Habitat International, 31(1), 2007.
88825. S., Zhan. “What determines migrant workers’ life chances in contemporary china? hukou, social exclusion, and the market.” Modern China, 37(3), 2011.
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