Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
lnk between
hukou
status and welfare eligibility, the denial of education
for migrant children, and state job availability. In 1995, to re-assert control
over internal migration, Zhao (2000) notes that tighter controls were imposed
over the legalty of urban resdency and housng subsdes.
8
As part of China's urbanisation strategy for the 10th Five-Year plan,
Central Party Document Number 11 of November 2000 allows a person and
hs or her mmedate famly to obtan urban
hukous
if he or she has fixed
accommodaton and stable work (n a job for more than one year) n the
urban area. Urban
hukou
was also offered to those who purchased a local
commercal housng unt (to attract outsde nvestment) and to holders of
graduate degrees (attractng professonals). The focus of these reforms was
still mainly on small towns and small cities, however. Nonetheless, according
to China's Committee to Restructure the Economy (SCORES), during 2001
about 600,000 rural residents acquired urban
hukou
n these small urban
centres. More recently still, a State Council directive indicated that rural
mgrants have a legal rght to work n ctes. It prohbts job dscrmnaton
based on resdency and orders that urban resdency documents are to be
provided to any workers who find employment. A further recent directive
ndcates that busnesses should stop delayng wage payments to workers.
This is a significant improvement for migrant workers as they often find
that they are taken advantage of due to ther uncertan legal status.
Official barriers to migration therefore appear to have had an ever
dmnshng effect and the least effect n the perod snce the Asan crss
of 1997. Other things equal, then, we would expect an acceleration in the
relocaton of workers nto jobs n the modern sector n that perod. Ths
is not what the evidence suggests, however.
Sectoral relocaton of workers
The trends in employment by major sector are indicated in Figure 10.3. The
early 1990s was a perod of rapd ndustral expanson durng whch workers
relocated from the rural sector to the ndustral and servces sectors.
Significantly, while the expected long term rise in the share of services in
total employment is borne out, industrial employment fell substantially
during the Asian crisis period and failed to expand thereafter. Indeed,
the farmng and forestry sector shows annual declnes n employment
