does hukou still matter? the household registration system and its...

Social Sciences in ChinaVol. XXIX, No. 2, May 2008, 56-75

ISSN 0252-9203© 2008 Social Sciences in China PressDOI: 10.1080/02529200802091250http://www.informaworld.com

Does hukou still matter? The household registration system and its impact on social stratification and mobility in China

Lu Yilong

The Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China

户籍制度是中国社会一项基本的制度安排，它把户口作为资源配置和利益分配的重要凭

据，对社会分层和流动产生了较大的影响。在改革开放近三十年后，中国的户口还起不起作

用，以及起着怎样的作用？通过对综合社会调查数据的分析，发现中国社会分层具有城乡户

口差别和城市户口等级差别并存的特点，户口转变和迁移的开放性程度与个人社会流动机会

获得有正相关关系。市场转型虽带来了较多流动机会，但户口等级差别以及户口对体制内流

动所起的结构性影响依然存在。鉴于户籍制度的强粘附性生成了社会差别，改革这一制度的

基本方向是推行户口一元化和迁移自主化。

关键词：户口、户籍制度、社会分层、流动

The household registration system has been a basic institutional arrangement in Chinese society.

Under this system, registered residence (hukou) plays an important role in resource allocation and

interest distribution, and thus exerts a significant impact on social stratification and mobility. After

nearly three decades of reform and opening up, does it still play a role, and, if so, what is this role?

Drawing on data from the China General Social Survey, we find that China’s social stratification is

characterized by the simultaneous existence of differentiation between urban and rural hukou and

hierarchy within urban hukou; furthermore, there is a positive correlation between one’s opportunities

for social mobility and the possibility of changing and transferring one’s hukou. Despite the increasing

social mobility ensuing from market-oriented transformation, the hukou hierarchy and its structural

influence on mobility within the institutional framework persist. The strongly conglutinative nature of

the household registration system has given rise to social disparities. The basic direction for reform of

the system should be unification of hukou and free choice of movement from one place to another.

Keywords: registered residence (hukou), household registration system, social stratification, mobility

The household registration system centering on hukou registration and management is not only a basic system of social administration, but also one closely linked with resource allocation and interest distribution in China. People’s basic necessities of life – food, clothing, shelter and

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Lu Yilong 57

transportation; their birth, death, illness and old age; schooling and employment, welfare and social security – are all related to some extent to their hukou. At the core of the household registration system are two measures: dividing citizens into two categories – those with rural hukou and those with non-rural hukou – and putting them under local government administration with strict control over changes in hukou. This institutional arrangement, with its control of changes in people’s status and their free movement, has played an important role in the formation of the dual urban-rural structure and the emergence of a hierarchy among cities in the Chinese society.1

The household registration system has now undergone various types of reform. These have included: in the mid-1980s, setting up small-town hukou not tied to state grain rations and small-town hukou that were locally effective only, and trialling resident identity cards; in the 1990s, what was effectively the sale of urban hukou by allowing the conversion of rural hukou for payment; and, in the early 21st century, piloting reforms involving the unification of hukou. Especially during the market-oriented transformation of the economy, more and more people have come to big and medium-sized cities from rural areas and towns, working as casual laborers, contract workers and peasant workers or running their own small businesses. The fact that they can live in the cities despite not being permanent registered residents makes people feel hukou no longer matters. However, hukou is still very important in other respects: from children’s schooling to an official career, a local hukou is a precondition for gaining access to resources within the system. What role, then, does hukou play after all and how does it play it? Is this role justified now when nationwide efforts are being made to build a socialist harmonious society?2 People from all quarters, from legislators to managers, from academic researchers to ordinary citizens, have put forward their views and suggestions on these questions in a ferment of discussion.

So far as theoretical research on the household registration system is concerned, previous studies have been limited to discussing the necessity and importance of reform of the system within the framework of a dual structure, or to exploring technical matters related to the reform of the hukou management system. All these studies are based mainly on common knowledge and general reasoning, and have had some positive results in analyzing the holistic social influence of the household registration system and appealing for reform. However, what are the links between hukou and the mechanism of social stratification and mobility in China? How to understand the social transformation in China in the light of changes in the household registration system? What aspects of the social structure in China have changed and what aspects have not? How did these changes take place and what effects have they produced? Previous studies on the household registration system seldom involved answers to these important issues of sociological theory. Furthermore, existing studies involve little empirical research, especially the thorough and painstaking empirical research based on data from large-scale sample surveys. Therefore, empirical studies from the theoretical perspectives of social stratification and mobility and social transition that are based on the analysis of empirical data will help people gain a more thorough

1 Lu Yilong, Household registration system: control and social disparity.2 Lu Yilong, Transcending hukou: interpreting china’s household registration system.

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58 Social Sciences in China

and precise understanding of what social disparities have been created by the household registration system and how this happened.

Theories and hypotheses

A relatively prevalent theory in empirical studies on the relationship between the household registration system, on the one hand, and mechanisms of social stratification and mobility and the transformation of social structures, on the other, is the theory of a dual urban and rural structure. For example, Cai Fang is of the view that the separate urban and rural labor markets in China took shape in close connection with the relevant systems; the household registration system protected, to some extent, the employment of urban labor but excluded rural labor.3 Some empirical studies are further of the opinion that hukou-based differences exist in the relations between labor and capital in the labor market; there are wide disparities between laborers who are urban residents and peasant laborers in wages, insurance and qualification for trade union membership, with hukou being responsible for 30% of the disparities.4 On the other hand, Xiao Wentao points out in his studies that the household registration system does not in fact prevent the movement of rural labor into the cities; the main factors hindering this movement are the overly high ratio between the industrialized population and annual number of people becoming industrialized, plus the grave employment situation.5

With regard to the social effects of the household registration system in China, some American scholars have proposed on the basis of document studies that the household registration system gave rise to a social spatial hierarchy in China after 1949.6 Through control over transfer of hukou between different places, the household registration system ossified and brought into bold relief social spatial differences. Inter-regional imbalance in economic development alone does not necessarily give rise to social disparities, because people can change their inferior position through free movement and thus counterbalance or partially eliminate the social disparities. However, if their freedom to change abode is denied, the inter-regional imbalance in economic development will become a social spatial difference, for it is difficult for people whose hukou are in less developed areas to gain opportunities by moving to more developed areas.

Of the sociological theories about social stratification and mobility mechanisms in China, the theories of work unit redistribution, market-oriented transformation and power maintenance are all based on data from the countryside alone or the urban areas alone,7 overlooking the effects of differences between town and country and among cities of various levels and macroscopic

3 Cai Fang, Du Yang, and Wang Meiyan, “The household registration system and labor market protection.”4 Yao Xianguo, and Pu Laiqing, “Differences based on urban and rural household registration in the relations between labor and capital.”5 Xiao Wentao, “Does the household registration system protect the dual labor market?”6 Hierarchical social disparities exist in resource allocation and fringe benefits among rural areas, towns and small cities, medium-sized cities and big cities. Cheng Tiejun, and Mark Selden, “The origins and social consequences of China’s hukou system,” China Quarterly, 1994, pp. 645~668.7 Bian Yanjie, Market-oriented transformation and social stratification, pp. 183-460.

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Lu Yilong 59

institutional factors, which amounts to omitting to estimate the variance among groups.In their empirical analyses of factors related to acquiring urban hukou for the same cohort,

Wu Xiaogang and D. J. Treiman discovered that education and political qualification (Party membership) increase opportunities to change rural into non-rural hukou, but rural hukou markedly lowers opportunities for schooling and acquiring political status. They therefore called into question the previous conclusion that “China is an open society,” a conclusion reached on the basis of research results showing high inter-generational mobility and low correlation in occupational status between parents and children. They believed this conclusion was based only on data from urban areas without taking into consideration the difference between urban and rural hukou and the difficulty of acquiring urban hukou, thus leading to a biased conclusion.8 On the other hand, they took notice of the difficulty of acquiring urban hukou but did not pay attention to the difficulty of transferring hukou between cities and the hierarchy of urban hukou resulting from the relatively closed nature of urban resources.9

Based on progress in the above-mentioned theoretical research, this paper tries, through the analyses of data from a large-scale sample survey, to test the following two theoretical hypotheses about the relationship between hukou and social stratification and mobility in China:

Hypothesis 1: As long as the basic rules of the household registration system, i.e., the dual urban and rural structure of hukou and control over the transfer of hukou between cities, are not reformed, hukou will still play a significant role in social stratification in China. The stratification mechanism in Chinese society is expressed in the coexistence of the separation between town and country and the hierarchy in urban hukou: on the one hand, there is a wide gap between the status of urban and rural residents; on the other, the higher one’s hukou grade, that is, the higher the administrative level of the city one’s hukou belongs to, the more opportunities one has for joining a higher stratum.

Hypothesis 2: As one of China’s basic social policies and institutional arrangements, the household registration system has always influenced social mobility in different ways and degrees. Its structural influence is particularly noteworthy: the type of hukou individuals and their families have and their experience of hukou transfer and change have a rather significant effect on their opportunity for upward mobility. Individuals with an urban hukou and/or the ability to transfer and change hukou will have a greater probability of upward mobility.

Data, variables and method

The data this paper uses are from the China General Social Survey conducted by the Department of Sociology of Renmin University of China in 2003 (CGSS 2003). This survey adopted the sampling frame of the national population census: first of all neighborhood committees were

8 Wu Xiaogang, & Donald J. Treiman, “The household registration system and social stratification in China: 1955-1996.”9 In the operational practice of the household registration system, the transfer of hukou among cities, whether on the same level, upward or downward, must be based on an institutional reason, such as recruitment for a job, acceptance as a student, change of jobs, or dependent accompanying transferred family members. If no such reason exists, administrative approval for official hukou transfer will not be given.

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randomly selected in cities and towns throughout the country (excluding Xinjiang, Tibet and Qinghai), then investigators used the equidistant sampling method to select household samples from the household registers of the committees. On arriving at the households, the investigators used the random sampling form to determine interviewees and conduct questionnaire interviews. The survey ultimately yielded 5,894 effective questionnaire forms. The distribution of the interviewees’ hukou was as follows (see Table 1):

Table 1 The distribution of interviewees’ hukou

Hukou hierarchy No. of people Percentage Effective percentage %

Cumulative percentage %

Municipality 950 16.1 16.1 16.1

Provincial capital city 1450 24.6 24.6 40.7

Prefecture-level city 1328 22.5 22.5 63.3

County-level city 1130 19.2 19.2 82.4

Town 602 10.2 10.2 92.7

Village 433 7.3 7.3 100.0

Missing 1

Total 5894 100.0 100.0

M. Weber and G. Lenski proposed to observe status in a hierarchy from the three dimensions of power, market opportunity and social prestige. Therefore this paper treats Party membership, income and occupational status as three dependent variables for measuring an individual’s status in the hierarchy, with income being a distance variable – the average monthly income calculated from the interviewee’s annual income in the previous year. The dependent variables for measuring opportunities for upward mobility are: whether the interviewee’s occupation underwent upward mobility, whether the interviewee’s managerial level underwent upward mobility, and whether the level of the department in change of the interviewee’s work unit underwent upward mobility. Meanwhile, in order to reflect the historical influence of the reform of the household registration system, three variables for historical period are introduced: before 1976, the period from 1977 to 1992 and the period from 1993 on. The variable before 1976 reflects conditions in China before reform and opening-up; the period 1977-1992 was a time of transition towards reform and opening-up when policies of changing rural to non-rural hukou and transfer of hukou were implemented; and the period from 1992 on saw the deepening of market-oriented reform and steadily deepening and expanding reform in the grain circulation system and the employment system in urban areas. The variable of acquisition of mobility opportunities is a dichotomic variable calculated according to whether the interviewee had any upward mobility during his whole occupational career.

Independent variables include mainly: the interviewee’s grade of hukou, grade of hukou at birth, type of hukou, location of hukou, history of transfer of hukou, and gender, and parents’

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Lu Yilong 61

type of hukou, their hukou at birth, location of their hukou and their hukou transfer history. For the measurement and implications of these independent variables please see Table 2.

For a comparison of the influence of the hukou factor with that of non-hukou factors, the gender of interviewees is introduced in the independent variables. In view of the close connection of hukou with the interviewees’ schooling and occupation, we do not list the interviewee’s human capital in the independent variables.

Table 2 Main variables and their measurementK i n d s o f

variablesName of variable Indicator Implications and explanations

Dependent

variables

Party membershipParty member = 1, non-Party

member = 0Political status

Income level Value of variable (distance)

Indicating economic status. It is the

average monthly income calculated

from the interviewee’s annual income

in the previous year divided by 12, not

official statistical data.

Occupational

status

Lower-level occupation = 1,

middle-level occupation = 2,

higher-level occupation = 3

“Higher-level” refers to top manage-

ment and professional and technical

personnel, “middle-level” to middle

management and ordinary office

workers and “lower-level” to manual

laborers and clerical personnel.

Occupational

upward mobility

With upward mobility = 1,

without upward mobility = 0

Having experienced occupational pro-

motion

Managerial rankWith upward mobility = 1,


Mobility from non-managerial job to

lower-level, middle-level and higher

level managerial job.

Administrative

level of the depart-

ment in charge of

the interviewee’s

work unit

With upward mobility = 1,


Mobil i ty f rom a town- (s t reet- )

affiliated unit to a county-, prefecture-

and central authorities-affiliated unit.

G r a d e o f t h e

in terviewee’s

hukou

Hukou in a municipality = 6,

hukou in a provincial capital

city = 5, hukou in a prefecture-

le-vel city = 4, hukou in a

county-level city = 3, hukou in

a town = 2，rural hukou = 1

Grade of the interviewee’s hukou

refers to the place administering

the interviewee’s hukou and its

administrative level; rural hukou

refers to people who live in urban

areas but still have rural hukou.

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Independent

variables

Type of the inter-

viewee’s hukou

Urban hukou = 1, rural hukou

= 0

Referring to whether the interviewee

himself has an urban or rural hukou.

G r a d e o f t h e

in terviewee’s

hukou at birth

Hukou in a municipality = 6,

hukou in a provincial capital

city = 5, hukou in a prefecture-

level city = 4, hukou in a

county-level city = 3, hukou in

a town = 2，rural hukou = 1

Representing the status of the inter-

viewee’s family in the social spatial

hierarchy.

Location of the

i n t e r v i e w e e ’s

hukou

Hukou is that of current place

of residence = 1, not that of

current place residence = 0

Indicates the distinction between

transient and permanent populations,

with the former changing place without

transferring their hukou.

Number of times

the interviewee’s

hukou transferred

Value of variable (distance)

Referring to the number of official

transfers of the interviewee’s hukou, an

indication of acquisition of the capital

of institutional hukou transfer and the

degree of openness of hukou.

Experience of

transfer of the

in terviewee’s

hukou

With transfer of hukou = 1,

without transfer of hukou = 0Ibid.

Parents’ type of

hukou


= 0Referring to the status of parents’

hukou and representing intergener-

ational capital.Parents’ hukou

at birth


= 0

L o c a t i o n o f

parents’ hukou

Hukou is that of current place

of residence = 1, not that of

current place residence = 0

Referring to the relationship between

the interviewee and the location of

his/her parents’ hukou and indicating

whether the interviewee is away from

the location of his / her parents’ hukou.

Parents’ experi-

ence of hukou

transfer

With transfer of hukou = 1,

without transfer of hukou = 0

Referring to parents’ experience of

official hukou transfer and indicating

the mobility of the family and openness

of the parents’ hukou.

Gender of the

intervieweeMale = 1, female = 0

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Lu Yilong 63

This paper adopts the linear probability regression model in analyzing the influence of various hukou factors on the acquisition of social status in the hierarchy and upward mobility opportunities:

P(y = 1 |x) = α + β1x1 + β2x2 + …βnxn + µ (1)In Equation (1), y is a dichotomic dependent variable; x, an independent variable; β, the

regression coefficient of all the independent variables; α, the constant term, and µ, the error term. With a logit conversion of this equation we will build up the logistic regression model:

Logit (P) = β0+ β1x1 + β2x2 + …βnxn (2)The regression model for estimating the effect of hukou on income is:

Ln Y= α + β1x1 + β2x2 + …βnxn + µ (3)The Mincer yield model was adopted:

β = XY

Y ∂∂1 (4)

What Equation (4) expresses is percentage of income a one-grade change in hukou will yield with other factors being constant. The OLS estimate is adopted for the income coefficient of hukou.

Since the data cannot provide information about other human resources when an individual acquires the opportunity for hierarchical status and mobility in different stages, it is impossible to analyze the net influence of hukou by controlling other variables and we can only put all the factors of hukou in the model and analyze its overall influence.

The role of hukou in social stratification

In measuring an individual’s hierarchical status this paper uses the three variables of Party membership, income and final occupational status as observational variables and uses the grades and other factors of hukou as explanatory variables in order to test if the stratification of hukou or social spatial hierarchy in Hypothesis 1 exists.

Of the 5,778 respondents who answered the question “Are you a Party member?” 1,077 were Party members, accounting for 18.6%. Table 3 is the regression analysis of the acquisition of Party membership. Model 1 takes the grade of the interviewee’s hukou, the location of the interviewee’s and his / her parents’ hukou, the interviewee’s hukou at birth and experience of hukou transfer as independent variables; Model 2 introduces the types of the interviewee’s and his / her parents’ hukou and the interviewee’s gender as co-variables. We can see the following from the results of regression analyses:

First, there is a significant difference between urban and rural hukou in acquiring Party membership and it is easier for those with urban hukou to become members of the Party.

Second, the grade of urban hukou does not play any role in acquiring Party membership, nor does an individual’s grade of hukou have a significant effect in this regard; that is, no difference is found between a small town and a municipality directly under central government in the

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opportunity for acquiring Party membership.

Table 3 The results of two-variable logistic regression for acquiring Party membershipIndependent variables Model 1 Model 2

B S.E B S.E

Constant term -1.905**** .191 -.904*** 301

Grade of interviewee’s hukou .040 .030 -.015 .041

Grade of interviewee’s hukou at birth .005 .049 .005 .062

Whether interviewee has a native hukou .357**** .108 .253* .133

Whether father has a native hukou -.388*** .142 -.436** .189

Whether mother has a native hukou -.269** .132 -.242 .183

Whether the interviewee transferred own hukou .566**** .143 .492*** .181

Mother’s hukou at birth -.513*** .177 -.091 .320

Father’s hukou at birth .198 .173 .048 .319

Whether interviewee has urban hukou / / 1.003**** .220

Whether father has urban hukou / / .045 .183

Whether mother has urban hukou / / -.330* .186

Gender (male = 1, female = 2) / / -1.200**** .090

x2

-2Log likelihood163.721****

5394.204320.875****

3588.953

N 5778 4349

Note: *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001.

Third, there are fewer opportunities for the non-institutional floating population, i.e., those who have not transferred their hukou, to acquire Party membership. Although the floating population are allowed to live in cities away from their native place without transferring their hukou, there are fewer opportunities for them to join the Party, which shows that they have fewer opportunities than local people to gain access to political resources and that hukou is still an important qualification for gaining such resources.

Fourth, the more individuals and their families are able to get an institutional or official hukou transfer, the greater will be their political capital and their opportunities to possess political resources. This proves that hukou has a rather significant correlation with power capital.

Lastly, gender has a significant effect on the acquisition of the Party membership, that is, men have more opportunities than women to join the Party. However, Model 2 shows that after the factor of gender is introduced, there is still a significant difference in the acquisition of the Party membership between town and country and between institutional and non-institutional change of residence.

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Lu Yilong 65

Table 4 OLS estimate of the yield rate of the hukou factor

Standardized coefficient

B S. E df F

Grade of the interviewee’s hukou .137**** .017 2 64.714

Grade of the interviewee’s hukou at birth .049**** .017 2 8.675

Number of times the interviewee’s hukou was transferred .205**** .017 2 149.083

R2 0.076

A. R2 0.074

F 46.071****

Note: *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001.

Through the OLS estimate of the relationship between the hukou factor and personal monthly income we can see the following:

1. The hukou hierarchy or social spatial hierarchy plays a significant part in the acquisition of economic status or market opportunities. The interviewee’s hukou grade contributes 13.7% of the growth of his monthly income, that is, in the hukou hierarchy from rural to municipal hukou, one grade higher means a possible 13.7% increase in monthly income. In spite of the fact that this result also reflects the effects of urban socio-economic development and other human capital factors, the hukou hierarchy shows that institutional arrangements in relation to hukou play an important role in income disparities among different levels of cities, for the difficulty in transferring from one urban hukou to another transforms the difference in resource allocation among cities into social disparities among individuals. Besides, this result also shows that the income disparities among cities are brought about by the interactions between the unbalanced allocation of economic resources and market opportunities among different levels of cities and the difficulty in transferring hukou among cities.

2. Family background exerts some impact on personal economic status. The grade of an individual’s hukou at birth is responsible for 4.9% of his income, which means that one grade higher in one’s hukou at birth may increase monthly income by 4.9%. This result further shows that the hukou hierarchy has its effect through inter-generational transmission in the family. The household registration system stipulates that a newborn baby shall have the same hukou as the mother or father, which implies that hukou is inborn and can be copied through inter-generational transmission. Anyone who has a higher-grade urban hukou at birth will naturally be in an advantageous position to gain access to resources.

3. The more times an individual’s hukou is transferred, the higher that individual’s income. A one-time transfer of hukou contributes 20.5% to an individual’s monthly income, that is, a one-time transfer of hukou means a possible increase of 20.5% in monthly income, which indicates that openness of hukou transfer has a positive role in increasing personal income. Transfers of hukou include changing from rural to non-rural hukou and official transfer of hukou between cities at the

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same level and between cities at different levels. The arrangements of the household registration system make it very difficult to have one’s hukou officially transferred; those who are able to have this done more than once must have had, or their families must have had, greater capital to break through institutional barriers, capital that also operated invisibly to help them get higher incomes.

Table 5 Results of multiple logistic regression for acquiring occupational status

Model 1 Model 2

Independent variables Middle-level

occupation

Higher-level

occupation

Lower-level

occupation

Middle-level

occupation

Intercept -.684***

(.264)

-2.134****

(.383)

1.827

(.108)

.442****

(.129)

Interviewee’s hukou grade at birth -.170****

(.049)

.024

(.069)/ /

No. of times interviewee’s hukou was transferred-.173

(.137)

.414**

(.210)/ /

Location of interviewee’s hukou-.068

(.103)

-.038

(.138)/ /

Interviewee’s hukou grade

Rural hukou (n = 318)

.

656****

(.196)

-1.030***

(.399)

1.197****

(.358)

2.181****

(.368)

Hukou in a town (n = 534).243

(.154)

-.122

(.213)

.140

(.188)

.650***

(.211)

Hukou in a county-level city (n = 988).063

(.133)

-.053

(.174)

.102

(.153)

.348**

(.177)

Hukou in a prefecture-level city (n = 1196).143

(.120)

.148

(.151)

-.127

(.141)

.134

(.165)

Hukou in a provincial capital city (n = 1317)-.112

(.119)

.225

(.137)

-.212

(.135)

-.285

(.163)

Hukou in a municipality (n = 868) 0(b) 0(b) 0(b) 0(b)

x2 150.417**** 117.289****

-2Log likelihood 360.311 76.157

R2 0.028 0.022

N (total: 5222) 1109 582 3511 1109

Notes: 1. *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001; in the brackets is standard deviation (SD).

2. b is a parameter, which is designed as 0.

In the multiple regression analysis of the interviewees’ occupational status, the difference

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Lu Yilong 67

between Model 1 and Model 2 is that in Model 1 the interviewee’s hukou grade at birth, the present hukou location and the number of times the hukou was transferred are introduced as co-variables (see Table 5). The results may be summarized as follows:

First, occupational status and hukou grade are positively correlated, which means the hukou hierarchy plays a role in the acquisition of occupational status. A more striking feature is that those with rural and small-town hukou are mostly engaged in lower- and middle-level occupations and have a low probability of getting higher-level jobs.

Second, those with experience of hukou transfer have a greater probability of getting higher-level jobs. This is because against the background of the existing household registration system, the transfer of hukou is under strict administrative control and the experience of hukou transfer is itself an indicator of having more comprehensive capital, such as the inter-generational family capital transmission, social network capital and personal human capital.

Third, an individual’s location of birth has some bearing on occupational status: those born in bigger cities have a higher probability of getting higher-level jobs while those born in lower-level locations have a higher probability of getting lower-level jobs. An individual’s hukou grade at birth is consistent with his occupational status: someone with a higher hukou grade at birth has a higher probability of getting a higher-level job. From this result we can see an individual’s family hukou grade has a significant effect on his / her occupational status, an effect brought about through the joint force of hukou grade, the difficulty of hukou transfer and the transmission of family hukou status.

What the results of empirical analysis reveal is basically consistent with the facts presented by history and realities: in respect to Party membership, economic income and occupational status, rural residents have obviously fewer opportunities than urban ones. This is a well-known and indisputable fact, perhaps because fewer political and economic resources are allocated to rural areas. Within the traditional institutional framework, those with rural hukou have to do farm work and under the control of state pricing and welfare policies the income from agricultural occupations is generally lower than that from other occupations. Since the introduction of reform and opening-up, rural people have been able to look for work in urban areas, but they are still excluded from the urban system and can work only as casual laborers and contract workers or run small-scale businesses. They are not eligible for the allowances welfare or social security at the system’s disposal, to say nothing of higher-level jobs.

Effect of hukou on social mobility

In order to understand the role of hukou in social mobility, we must find the answers to the questions of what grades of hukou confer opportunities to make good, and why. In order to observe the relationship between upward mobility and hukou this paper chooses rises in the interviewees’ occupational status and managerial rank and the administrative level of the department in charge of his/her work unit as three dependent variables for the acquisition of mobility opportunities. Bearing in mind the various important reforms relating to the household registration system, the three variables of historical periods are introduced. From the results of

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two-variable logistic regression (see Table 6) we can see the following: 1. Before reform and opening-up, an individual’s occupational upward mobility had a lot to do

with the hukou of his family. If an interviewee had an urban hukou, had a mother who also had urban hukou, and had a father who was able to transfer hukou, he would have a high probability of occupational upward mobility. Besides, a social spatial hierarchy exists in the acquisition of mobility opportunities. The higher an interviewee’s grade of hukou is, the more opportunities for upward mobility he has. This phenomenon arises from the close connection between the urban employment system and hukou before reform and opening-up: all adults with urban hukou were given a job by the government; children had the same hukou as their mother; and when parents retired their children could take their place at work.

Table 6 Results of two-variable logistic regression for upward occupational mobility

Before 1976 1977 to 1992 After 1993

Independent variables B S.E B S.E B S.E

Constant terms 1.438**** .249 -.616**** .176 -.244 .173

Grade of interviewee’s hukou .117** .051 -.096*** .032 .069** .031

Grade of interviewee’s hukou at birth .015 .067 .033 .044 -.044 .043

Type of interviewee’s hukou .533*** .180 .436**** .133 -.216* .130

Location of interviewee’s hukou -.235 .152 .445**** .092 -.085 .091

Type of father’s hukou -.057 .219 .323** .145 .075 .141

Location of father’s hukou -.545*** .197 -.620**** .133 -.169 .129

Type of mother’s hukou .455** .226 .036 .148 .225 .144

Location of mother’s hukou -.304 .200 -.037 .131 -.068 .128

Whether interviewee transferred own hukou .194 .186 .184 .130 -.028 .127

Whether father transferred his hukou .660**** .192 .129 .123 .234* .120

Whether mother transferred her hukou -.279 .182 .097 .121 -.312*** .119

Mother’s hukou at birth .352 .387 .443* .252 .156 .246

Father’s hukou at birth -.707* .401 -.243 .249 .133 .244

x2 163.215**** 163.475**** 45.002****

-2Log likelihood 3084.582 5902.876 6092.105

R2 0.036 0.036 0.010

N (total: 4427) 3986 2493 2218

Note: *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001.

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Lu Yilong 69

2. In the period from 1977 to 1992, on the one hand the household registration system continued to have its original effect, as shown by the greater probability of upward occupational mobility for those with urban hukou and the natives; on the other, the effects of an individual’s hukou grade on occupational mobility opportunities underwent a reversal (the regression coefficient being -0.096) and those with a lower hukou grade had more upward mobility opportunities. Individual or parental movement, with or without official transfer of hukou, had a positive effect on acquiring upward mobility opportunities, indicating that the more capital one had for officially transferring hukou or for breaking through the barriers to hukou transfer, the more opportunities one would acquire for upward mobility. This also shows that fewer restrictions on hukou transfer could possibly increase the openness of the social structure.

Table 7 Results of logistic regression for upward mobility in interviewees’ managerial rankBefore 1976 1977 to 1992 After 1993


Constant terms .080 .173 -.948**** .190 -.222 .173

Grade of interviewee’s hukou -.017 .031 -.087*** .032 .044* .031

Grade of interviewee’s hukou at birth -.097** .043 -.060 .046 -.032 .043

Type of interviewee’s hukou .206* .131 .340*** .143 .210* .130

Location of interviewee’s hukou -.087** .092 .213** .098 -.096 .091

Type of father’s hukou -.141 .143 .000 .148 .068 .141

Location of father’s hukou -.292 .132 -.527**** .140 -.103 .129

Type of mother’s hukou .199 .145 .120 .151 .259* .144

Location of mother’s hukou -.078 .129 .010 .136 -.090 .128

Whether interviewee transferred own hukou .164 .127 .172 .133 -.019 .127

Whether father transferred his hukou .258** .121 .197 .125 .263** .120

Whether mother transferred her hukou .074 .119 .157 .124 -.325*** .119

Mother’s hukou at birth -.273 .248 -.052 .261 .091 .247

Father’s hukou at birth .149 .245 .190 .258 .143 .244

x2 127.647**** 128.756**** 39.302****

-2Log likelihood 5992.108 5519.751 6093.946

R2 0.028 0.029 0.009

N (total: 4427) 2075 1485 2148

Note: *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001.

3. After 1993, the market economy developed rapidly and society entered a period of rapid transition. As a whole, the effect of the household registration system on the acquisition of occupational upward mobility opportunities has weakened, but the structural role of hukou

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still seems to exist and the hukou hierarchy and parents’ experience of hukou transfer have an obvious impact. What is different now from the past is that great changes have taken place in the difference in occupational upward mobility between people with urban hukou and those with rural hukou; more people with rural hukou have had opportunities for occupational upward mobility and development.

Upward mobility in an individual’s managerial rank refers to rising up the ladder of promotion from a non-managerial staff member to a member of lower-level, middle-level and then higher-level managerial staff. Mobility in managerial rank includes changes in both occupational status and power and position. From the results of the two-variable logistic regression of individuals’ upward mobility in managerial rank (see Table 7) we can see the following:

First, in all three periods, there was a significant difference between town and country in promotion to managerial rank, with promotional opportunities being easier to come by in urban areas, pointing to the important influence of the household registration system. What, then, is the mechanism by which this institutional influence expresses itself? In substance, urban and rural hukou represent an authoritative definition of personal rights, with urban hukou conferring greater and more extensive rights on its holders than rural hukou. People with rural hukou have only the right to do farm work. It is thus not difficult to understand the difference in opportunities for occupational upward mobility between town and country and why great numbers of “peasant laborers” and the floating population who have not officially transferred their hukou to the cities have not got the same occupational upward mobility and other welfare from the system despite having urban jobs.

Next, the years from 1977 to 1992 made up the first stage of reform and opening-up in China. During this time the institutional influence of the hukou persisted but the influence of the hukou hierarchy was subverted (the coefficient of hukou grade was -0.087). However, after 1993, with the steady deepening of market-oriented transformation, the role of hukou hierarchy resurfaced, which shows that market-oriented transformation did not eliminate the hukou hierarchy or the social spatial hierarchy, but rather maintained the hukou hierarchy. The root cause of this phenomenon is perhaps the fact that in the mid-1980s great efforts were made to develop medium- and small-sized cities and towns, and town and village enterprises mushroomed; as a result many founders of such enterprises prospered in small cities and towns, balancing and dissolving part of the difference among hukou. However, after 1993, although market-oriented economic restructuring was further deepened, the financial and tax system and bureaucratization of the lead mechanism for investment decisions determined that the higher a city’s administrative level, the higher its financial and tax position and its investment decision-making position, so that a city with a higher administrative level naturally had more public investment and resources and was able to provide more opportunities for development.

The system of work units is a basic structural feature of urban Chinese society. Under this system, social life is basically organized according to these units, which are the most important organizations in resources and interests distribution, and people’s hierarchical status and living conditions are closely connected with the nature and level of the units they belong to. In the

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Lu Yilong 71

mechanism of social stratification in China, there exists a hierarchy of working organizations, but the hierarchy is based on the power of the work units instead of their levels of market profit.10

The “level of unit” here refers to the administrative level of the department or agency in charge of the unit in which the interviewee works. The administrative hierarchy consists of, from top to bottom, the central, provincial, prefectural, county, street (town) and lower levels. If an interviewee changes from his original unit to another and the department in charge of the latter has a higher administrative level, then we say he has experienced upward mobility from a lower to a higher level of administrative unit. From the results of the two-variable logistic regression for upward mobility in such cases (Table 8), we can see the following:

Table 8 Results of two-variable logistic regression for upward mobility from a lower to a higher level of administrative unit

Before 1976 1977 to 1992 After 1993


Constant terms .911**** .176 -.565*** .182 -.188 .179

Grade of interviewee’s hukou .038 .031 -.033 .032 .040 .032

Grade of interviewee’s hukou at birth -.157**** .043 -.096** .045 -.107** .045

Type of interviewee’s hukou .006 .131 .155 .138 -.328*** .135

Location of interviewee’s hukou -.290*** .093 .159* .096 -.208** .094

Type of father’s hukou -.160 .142 .073 .147 .065 .148

Location of father’s hukou -.178* .130 -.448**** .138 .044 .137

Type of mother’s hukou .166 .145 .026 .149 .115 .151

Location of mother’s hukou -.074 .128 -.029 .134 -.043 .135Whether interviewee transferred own

hukou -.111 .127 .014 .132 -.086 .132

Whether father transferred his hukou .361*** .121 .310** .125 .330*** .125

Whether mother transferred her hukou -.120 .120 -.038 .124 -.194* .125

Mother’s hukou at birth -.381 .250 .100 .255 -.080 .258

Father’s hukou at birth .098 .247 -.066 .252 .118 .256

χ 2 101.803**** 91.617**** 40.857****

-2Log likelihood 6026.373 5651.388 5678.589

R2 0.023 0.020 0.009

N (total: 4427) 2313 1549 1539

Note: *p<.10, **p<.05, ***p<.01, ****p<.001.

First, a father’s experience of hukou transfer has a significant and positively consistent effect

10 Wei Angde, “Occupational mobility and political order,” in Market-oriented transformation and social stratification, pp. 134-137.

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on the mobility of his children between work units of different administrative levels in all three periods. This result shows that when it is difficult to transfer hukou, a father’s hukou transfer will increase the opportunities for his children to transfer their hukou and to be mobile.

Second, after 1993 urban Chinese society entered a period of rapid transformation. Economic and social systems underwent tremendous changes and the impact of hukou type on mobility between work units of different administrative levels has also changed in the direction of negative correlation. However, this result does not mean that people with rural hukou have more opportunities for upward mobility than those with urban hukou, but only that the former change the unit they belong to more often than the latter, showing, in a sense, that people with rural hukou have a higher degree of instability or uncertainty in their occupations.

Third, in urban society interviewees’ mobility between work units of different administrative levels has always varied with their hukou grades, that is, an interviewee’s hukou grade at birth is negatively correlated with changing jobs between work units of different administrative levels in all three periods. Being born in a bigger city means less possibility for mobility into a unit of higher administrative level. Because people’s hukou is inherited from their family and it is very difficult to transfer urban hukou from one city to another, it is only natural for the people to confine themselves to work units in their birthplaces. This reduces their scope for mobility and the possibility of changing work units between cities.

Generally speaking, hukou has a significant effect on individuals’ opportunities for mobility: anyone who has the conditions to transfer his hukou will have a greater probability of advancement, and anyone who can break through institutional barriers and move from one place to another without transferring hukou will have greater mobility in terms of occupation and change of work unit. In the years 1977 to 1992, the policy of vigorous development of medium- and small-sized cities and towns and the openness of hukou in small towns significantly dissolved and balanced disparities in urban hukou grades. After 1993, the household registration system slackened in its binding force and people could move between cities without transferring their hukou; thus promoting occupational mobility of people with rural hukou to a certain degree, but those who can officially transfer their hukou acquire more opportunities for occupational advancement.

Conclusions and discussions

The empirical analyses have basically verified the difference between town and country in the acquisition of hierarchical status and the hukou hierarchy put forth in Hypothesis 1. In acquisition of Party membership, an individual’s gender has a significant effect but grade of hukou does not; however, the interviewee’s type and location of hukou have a very significant effect, indicating that there is an obvious difference in the acquisition of political resources between town and countryside and between those within and without the system. With regard to economic income, hukou plays a significant role in income disparity and there exists a hukou hierarchy in income, i.e., the higher an individual’s hukou grade is, the more opportunities he

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Lu Yilong 73

will have for a higher income. The results of multiple logistic regression of occupational status and hukou show that hukou grades have a significant positive correlation with occupational status, that is, an individual with a higher grade of hukou has a greater probability of getting a higher-level occupation; conversely, an individual with a lower grade of hukou has a greater probability of getting a lower-level occupation.

The existence of social stratification based on hukou grade and the social spatial hierarchy reflects that the fact that there is an unbalanced allocation of resources between town and country and among cities of different levels; that hukou still serves as a basis for gaining access to important resources; and that the household registration system gave rise to a relatively closed hierarchical structure. Social stratification based on urban-rural differences and the hukou hierarchy is linked with the household registration system mainly through the difficulty of changing a rural into an urban hukou and the difficulty of transferring hukou between cities. The urban and regional gaps brought about by the administrative system of resource allocation turn these two mechanisms into social disparities, resulting in different values for different hukou status.

In respect of the connection between hukou and social mobility, Hypothesis 2 has been proved: individual and family hukou have a structural influence over mobility of occupation and status and over opportunities for advancement, and urban hukou, higher hukou grades and father’s experience of hukou transfer play a positive role in increasing the individual’s opportunities for upward mobility. The market-oriented transformation has promoted the openness of the labor market and boosted social mobility, especially occupational mobility and change of work units of people with rural and small town hukou. But their opportunity to raise their status is still restricted by their hukou, hence a high degree of social mobility accompanied by a high level of uncertainty. Yet, in a sense, mobility with or without official transfer of hukou is a symptom of openness of the household registration system and plays a positive role in promoting social mobility and individual development.

We can see from empirical studies that take hukou as their point of entry that in spite of the changes and transformations in the social structure in China since 1949, the basic pattern molded by the household registration system will still maintain the separation of urban from rural areas and the urban hierarchy unless a substantial reform of this system is undertaken. During reform and opening-up and the market-oriented transformation, the hierarchical structure and social mobility mechanisms underwent partial changes and more and more people were able to acquire resources and opportunities for mobility outside the system, but as the basis for acquiring resources within the system, hukou still influences and decides, to a large extent, the hierarchical structure and social integration in urban areas. This demonstrates that there will be no substantial changes in social structure, stratification and mobility mechanisms without reform of some basic social systems.

Moreover, findings in the course of the empirical studies have deepened our understanding of the reform of the household registration system. Generally people think the household registration system will be completely separated from social disparities as long as the principle of

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differential distribution attached to hukou is removed.11 However, this understanding fails to ask why this principle of differential distribution can be attached to hukou, how it is to be removed and, if it is removed, how we can guarantee that no new principle of differential distribution will be attached. So, if we are going to eliminate the connection between the household registration system and social disparities once and for all, we must begin with changes in the system itself and should not avoid its reform. Given that the household registration system has a strongly conglutinative nature and is a generative mechanism of social disparities, reform must eliminate its conglutinative nature. And this conglutinative nature is rooted in the difficulties created by institutional arrangements for changing rural into urban hukou and transferring hukou between cities. The core of the reform of the household registration system should therefore be to abolish the differentiation between urban and rural hukou and the administrative restrictions on hukou transfer, give citizens a single identity and set up a legal system allowing them to move freely and choose their place of residence.

The reform of the household registration system is a complex and very difficult undertaking. In order to build a harmonious society, we must take seriously the social disparities and disharmony attached to this system, do away with avoidable disparities through reform and further promote social harmony and stability.

Notes on contributor

Lu Yilong, Doctor of Sociology, Associate Professor of the Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China. His main research interests are China’s household registration system, law and society, and studies of rural China. His publications include Household Registration System: Control and Social Disparities (户籍制度

——控制与社会差别, 2003), Transcending One’s Registered Residence: an Interpretation of China’s Household Registration System (超越户口：解读中国户籍制度, 2004), and Changes in Embedded Politics and Village Economy: Investigations in Xiaogang Village, Anhui Province(嵌入性政治与村落经济的变迁——安徽小岗

村调查, 2007). Email: [email protected]. Tel: 8610-82502554. Address: The Department of Sociology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China 100872

References

Bian, Yanjie. Market-oriented transformation and social stratification (市场转型与社会分层). Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2002.

Cai, Fang, Du Yang, and Wang Meiyan. “The household registration system and labor market protection” (户籍

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11 Lu Yilong, “Conglutination and removal: problems in the household registration management at the grassroots level and measures to handle it.”

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Lu, Yilong. Household registration system: control and social disparity (户籍制度：控制与社会差别). Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2003.

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―Translated by Deng Ying fromZhongguo shehui kexue (中国社会科学), 2008, no. 1

Revised by Sally Borthwick

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