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(Lynn speaking in foreign language)
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- [Reporter] Lynn Ling
grew up in Shanghai,
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but always felt like an
outsider in the city.
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She was actually born in a
rural village in Hunan province,
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which her family left behind
when she was only two.
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(Lynn speaking in foreign language)
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- Because of where she was born,
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Lynn didn't have access to
the same educational resources
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that her urban-born peers enjoyed.
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It's all thanks to a controversial,
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longstanding policy, the hukou system.
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The policy was established in the 1950s
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to track and control movement
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as the government didn't want big cities
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to be overpopulated.
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- Hukou is almost functioning
as if it is a passport,
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which allows you, from
one part of the country,
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to move to another part of the country.
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And in order to settle down
as a permanent resident
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and being treated as local citizens,
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you have to have the passport
or hukou registration.
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- [Reporter] It was
also designed as a tool
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to better help central
planners allocate resources.
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- If you are not a local citizen,
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you cannot have access to
good quality public school
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for your children.
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Your child cannot take national exam.
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You cannot have access to social housing.
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It is difficult for you
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to get full pension coverage as well.
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I think hukou policy, in a nutshell,
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is discriminatory and it's inefficient.
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- [Reporter] Until recently,
rural hukou holders
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weren't even allowed to move
freely outside their hometowns.
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It was only in 2003 that the
Chinese government abolished
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the policy that allowed local authorities
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to arrest and evict migrant
workers in the cities.
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(children singing in foreign language)
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But many rural families, like Lynn's,
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still choose to relocate to
cities for better opportunities,
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even though they aren't entitled
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to the same benefits as their peers.
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(Lynn speaking in foreign language)
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- [Reporter] Lynn eventually
decided to give up
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on her high school education
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so she could stay with
her family in Shanghai.
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But more and more young
people are now being sent back
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to their rural towns far
away from their parents
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in order to finish their studies.
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Xiaoyan Kong was born in
a rural area in Anhui.
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Her family moved to Shanghai
when she was one-month-old.
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(Xiaoyan speaking in foreign language)
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- [Reporter] It's estimated that there are
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about 170 million students
affected by these policies.
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- I would say that the
population that pays
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the largest social price, the
brunt, right, of migration,
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is definitely young people.
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First, they may not have decided,
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and I doubt that they actually influenced,
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their family's decision to migrate.
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Parents migrate for a better
life for their children,
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but that's different from children saying,
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"I want us to move" or "I
do not want us to move."
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- The hukou system has been
loosened in recent years,
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allowing movement to smaller
cities to fill job vacancies.
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But this isn't the case for larger cities.
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Experts say reform has
been painfully slow.
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- There have been a lot of efforts trying
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to change the system, but
it's always difficult.
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What the main problem now is that
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the social welfare entitlement
are attached to hukou.
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The reform that needs to
be done is to detach them,
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so allow resources to be
allocated according to
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where people are rather
than where people from.
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- I think the difficulties
now is the Chinese elite have
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obviously their interests, right?
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When you think about who
would not want hukou reform,
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the obvious answer would be those
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who have privileged hukous right now.
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Are they willing to share
their social resources
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with people that don't have
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that Shanghai hukou or Beijing hukou?
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I think this is a moment
for not just the government
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to set policies that set a moral tone,
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but for citizens of
China to really consider
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what is a commitment to equality.
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- Hi.
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(Lynn speaking in foreign language)
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- [Reporter] Back in Shanghai,
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Lynn is now married to a local resident,
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which means she can
apply for Shanghai hukou,
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but she says it's no longer a priority.
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(Lynn speaking in foreign language)
