Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
The associated food shortages continued into the 1970s, only ending in
the 1980s (Zhao 2000). Each citizen is required to register in their place
of regular residence, often their birthplace. Moving from rural to urban
areas requres a complex and costly applcaton for a transfer to a local
hukou
. Prior to the reform in the 1980s, this was a huge barrier, as without
a proper
hukou
one would not qualfy for a government job assgnment.
Workers who ignored this requirement were denied social security benefits
such as housing and other necessities, even food.
Decollectvsaton n rural areas allowed ncome nequalty to soften a
little and non-farm rural industries to develop. This, and the household
responsibility system that accompanied it, had the effect of increasing
productivity in the agricultural sector. Thus, while rural incomes grew, so
also dd the proporton of workers consdered redundant.
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The government
began rewardng collectve farms and cooperatves for producton rather
than labour employed, so excess workers could be free to look for other
jobs (Seeborg, Jin and Zhu 2000). The marketisation of food also meant
that mgrants were no longer restraned entrely by the need to obtan a
local
hukou
to survve. Combned wth the development of specal economc
zones and the increase in urban private and informal sectors, the cities
were on a path of rapd development wth growng demand for labour. Yet
the HRS created ambiguous incentives for migrants. On the one hand, it
constrained people with access to land from migrating, since each was now
responsible for their own land, which most saw as a form of social security.
On the other hand, individuals with little or no access to land or who had
specalsed n what were to become low productvty rural actvtes were
now less constraned.
Through the 1980s and 1990s the HRS was gradually weakened by policy
reforms and less strngent enforcement. Prevously prohbted 'spontaneous'
migration to jobs in urban centres was tacitly facilitated and tolerated,
condtonally openng urban resdency to rural workers and relaxng some
of the strct controls. There has therefore been an ncrease n temporary
urban migrants: workers going to cities and towns without official residential
status, known as the 'floating population'. Figures from the late 1980s indicate
that transients made up over one-fifth of the population of such major cities
as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou (Canadian Immigration and Refugee
Board 2002). Many official restrictions remained, however, including the
