Presenter(s): Amber Thorp
Co Presenter(s): Anneliese Merrigan
Poster 179
Session: Global Engagement ARC
The Hukou system used to be the main tool to curb urban migration, especially the diaspora of rural farmers. In the past ten years, in spite of rising numbers of migration, the Hukou remains bound to public services, impacts government tax incomes, and influences regional economies. All of these factors give the government little motivation to make a change. Some small cities have slackened the system, but the division is still strong, and migrant workers have monumental problems adapting to cities and obtaining new urban identities. This delay of reform causes great insecurity for farmers with and without land. Farmers’ interests are encroached, and the simple structural divide of urban resident to farmer has evolved to include rural workers, those who the Hukou leaves out.