China's registration permit overhaul to give migrant workers welfare and education access

China has passed an ordinance on its nationwide registration permit system to give hundreds of millions of its migrant workers living in cities far from their birthplaces access to welfare services such as compulsory education.

The existing system of houshold registration has long been blamed for social instability; even those workers who have lived in adopted cities for many years are not entitled to the same benefits as locals because they do not have a household registration for their new places of residence.

Academics said the new system would improve migrant workers' right to basic welfare, including access to schooling, but more would have to be done before those with rural household registrations had the same privileges as their urban counterparts, or those leaving small towns and cities shared the benefits of permanent big-city residents.

The official ordinance has yet to be announced, but a draft, sent out for pubic consultation last year, promised residence permit holders who had moved to cities away from their birthplaces for at least six months would be eligible for nine basic public services, such as education and some social benefits.

The ordinance is part of the Beijing efforts to reform the household registration system known as the hukou, which it had hoped to complete by 2020.

Critics say the existing system has blocked the free flow of talent and urbanisation as many social benefits, such as the entitlement to compulsory education and public social insurance, were tied to the household registration.