Data from the National Bureau of Statistics indicates China currently has 230 million rural migrants turned de facto urban residents who have been working and living in a city for at least six months. Since 2008 the southern and eastern coastal provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang and Liaoning, and developed cities in central and northern China, such as Taiyuan, Wuhan and Changchun, have all abolished the temporary stay permit and adopted instead the residential certificate system.

It is generally believed that the certificate system will effectively equalize social welfare. Migrants granted a residential certificate will be provided, step by step, the same rights and privileges as local citizens with respect to medicare, education, labor insurance, employment and social security. In Guangdong, migrants who hold the residential certificate for more than seven years can apply for the permanent and full status of urban resident, on condition that they have a home (rented housing included), have paid for social insurance and paid the taxes required by law. The threshold for permanent residency is lowest in Taiyuan, requiring only five years of holding a residential certificate. The highest is Shenzhen at 10 years.

Hu Xingdou, a professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology and expert on China’s household registration system, acknowledges it has played a positive role in stabilizing the floating population. This largely unskilled group is in fact the backbone of the country’s industrial labor force and harnessing it is in China’s best interests. Hu recommends that the transition from legal migrant status to full metro citizen should be accomplished in steps – steps that stipulate and encourage the attainment of certain education levels and housing conditions, rather than just years of residence. He estimates it will take no more than 10 years for China to complete its household registration system reform and fully replace the old dual urban-rural registration arrangement.

The nature and reach of the welcome extended to migrants may continue to be uneven. As migrants become registered in their adopted cities, the expanded population increases will increase demand on a municipality’s social welfare system and push up other expenditures. Cities accommodating migrants are nevertheless offering various levels of benefits to residential card holders: the contents differ from those of permanent city residents. The scope of benefits coverage for migrants depends on a city’s level of prosperity.

Beijing’s adoption of the residential certificate system will mark the overall takeoff of reform in the household registration system across China.

With its huge permanent and floating population, the resources Beijing has to offer its migrant workers are stretched comparatively thin. Expert opinion is that the capital is expected to introduce a residential certificate system for its huge floating population within the year. Although it will cover, more or less, their social security and medicare, their children’s education, and some other benefits enjoyed by local citizens, it will not be as generous as that of other cities.

Professor Hu believes that Beijing’s adoption of the residential certificate system will mark the overall takeoff of reform in the household registration system across China. Though Beijing has some special conditions to consider, he is confident that the merger of the two cards will take no more than 10 years. In light of that, some worry that reform will cause a sudden population explosion in developed and affluent cities. Hu Xingdou counters that the market will intervene and adjust the labor force automatically: a population increase will cause housing prices and living expenses to mushroom, and that will in turn force out those migrants unable to hold out long enough to meet the time qualification for permanent resident status. Lawyer Han Deyun of Chongqing argues that although the residential certificate represents progress in terms of humanism and equality, little distinguishes it from the temporary stay permit; they are both transitional instruments.

From Earthy to Gritty

The farmer’s journey to the city is long and sometimes treacherous. For those who decide to acquire urban status, it means abandoning their land, by no means an easy decision. Moreover, high living expenses and scarce employment in cities are no less threatening to the new migrant.