The privileges granted through registered residence must cease while the system undergoes needed reform in order to better manage the population and ensure well-organized migration.

Gong Sen, director of the Research Development of Social Development under the Development Research Center (DRC) of State Council, made the remarks during an interview with the China Youth Daily recently.

Registered residence is a registration system for the population. However, the various entry conditions and attached benefits split citizens into two identities. Rural migrants without registered residence in cities lack equal rights in employment, voting, social security, education, primary medical care, living allowances and affordable housing. Nor can the unregistered participate in university entrance exams, despite living in the city.

The system stands as a wall between urban and rural residents. In the planned-economy era from 1949 to late '70s, this wall generally was insurmountable. Only a very few rural residents could obtain an urban Hukou (registered residence) through state-controlled methods, such as going to college or taking a certain job.

Since the '80s, reform has enabled rural residents to get a Hukou, through purchasing property, making a substantial investment, or achieving higher education. However, the threshold remains overly high and ordinary workers almost never have a chance.

Entrusted by the National Development and Reform Commission, the DRC's Research Development of Social Development has recently finished a research on population management policies and put forward a new approach to reforming the residence registration system.

According to the research team, the reform should follow the principle of equal rights and obligations. In the current system, migrants to a city acquire registered residence only after an arduous set of requirements. Once those are met, all benefits of registered residence immediately are bestowed. Alternatively, the researchers suggest significantly less arduous requirements with a gradual acquisition of benefits.

Under this gradual method, once individuals get registered residence, they'll have voting and employment rights along with social security, education and preliminary health care. Later, once they've paid into the system, full benefits will follow. The research team finds this method much more reasonable and practical than the current system.

It's true that reform will challenge the structures of urban education and affordable housing resources, but reform must nonetheless proceed in order to build a strong foundation for long-term social cohesion and guarantee equal opportunity for all citizens, said Gong.

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