Yunnan to dismantle 'hukou' system

GoKunming reports:

The Yunnan government has announced that beginning on January 1 of next year, Yunnan province will eliminate the current hukou registration system that essentially binds rural Yunnanese to their officially registered place of residence - often their place of birth or where their parents are registered. This reform of the system currently in use will enable millions to legally move and integrate into cities for the first time.

Currently, Kunming and other cities including Yuxi, Qujing and Dali have a substantial and uncounted population of technically illegal residents with rural hukou (户口), or residential registration, that have relocated to the cities from the Yunnan countryside. Most members of this demographic typically move to these cities to work or search for a job and are ineligible for social benefits provided by the cities where they live to registered residents.

You can read more about it at GoKunming.

This is significant news. The hukou system is one of the biggest problems migrant workers face in getting urban jobs, urban money, and urban schooling for their children. If the experiment is successful in Yunnan, other provinces will probably follow.