Institutional Change in Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing

Abstract

Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing present very different cases of city development over the reform era. Beijing is an example of an established city with a large existing non-agricultural hukou population that played a central role in the planned economy of the Maoist era. As a developed city, the seat of national government and one of China’s economic and cultural centres, Beijing attracts some of China’s most qualified and talented migrants. This has led to not only natural growth in the hukou population but also to a steady but relatively small stream of inward hukou transfers selected and recruited by local government who pick China’s best and brightest through competitive hukou transfer policies. The majority of Beijing’s migrants however fail to obtain inward hukou transfer. Since the 1980s, the growth of this ‘temporary population’ has created a large institutionalised temporary working class that has facilitated Beijing’s construction and the development of the service industry. This ‘temporary’ labour migration has become increasingly permanent illustrating a significant divergence from the regulations for temporary hukou permits. This divergence has been followed by increased allocation of civic rights in education and social security schemes and a reduction in the hukou/non-hukou division. However, the fundamental institutional division remains and continues to shape migration and settlement patterns in Beijing.