Meanwhile, a lack of hukou reform poses the potential for social dis-order. This is because of three reasons: One, the media has exposed social elites with multiple hukous. Many have used them to purchase properties as a form of investment and it has become a tool for corruption.32 This raises the concern of whether these officials are a powerful force that will hinder reform, but also whether exposure may compel rural migrants to demand reform. Two, although removal of the legal exclusion aspect of the hukou may give access to benefits for all, issues caused by social and economic exclusion may cause social unrest. To confront these issues, discriminatory treatments against migrants must be addressed through education about the idea of equality, but this has yet to happen.33 Three, the left-behind children are currently predominantly cared for by NGOs.34 However, the psychological damage to the future labour force is undetermined.35 There is the possibility that this generation will be less tolerant of injustice due to a development of a sense of abandonment.
In conclusion, this essay has argued that the current hukou reform only addresses issues caused by legal exclusion; hence, it is insufficient in addressing urban-rural disparities as issues caused by social and economic exclusions are largely ignored due to contradiction between the concerns of migrants and the will behind reforms, and due to a lack of political will. The essay has mainly focused on the reforms in Chongqing and Shanghai, and has used Weber’s three types of social exclusion as the framework for analysing the issues caused by hukou. Toward the end, the essay has suggested that if hukou reform is not addressed, there is potential for issues related to it to cause social unrest.
88832. C.W. Chan. “China’s hukou system stands in the way of its dream of prosperity.” South China Morning Post, 2013.
88833. J., Ito. “The removal of institutional impediments to migration and its impact on employment, production and income distribution in china.” Economic Change and Restructuring, 41(3), 2008.
88834. R., Lu. “Care and concern for left-behind children.” China Today, 2012.
88835. K. W. Chan. “The household registration system and migrant labor in china: Notes on a debate.” Population and Development Review, 36(2), 2010.
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