More Chinese cities ease residency rules to boost local economies
- Some of the country’s biggest urban areas including Guangzhou, Suzhou and Fuzhou have eased restrictions to help lure migrant workers
- The hukou, or permanent residence, system means millions cannot get access to social services
Some of China’s biggest cities are loosening their residency rules in an effort to increase their populations.
Cities that have recently relaxed their regulations in the hope of boosting their local labour and property markets include a number of major export and manufacturing hubs such as Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, Suzhou in Jiangsu and Fuzhou in Fujian.
Meanwhile Fuzhou’s new rules remove all restrictions on age, education and employment status for applicants from January 1.
Guangzhou’s new regulations do not go as far, but earlier this month the local authority published a plan that would allow all college-educated residents under 28 to gain permanent residency in seven districts if they have been working and paying social security in the city for at least 12 months. Other family members, including parents, spouses and children, will also be allowed to benefit from the new regulations.
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The decades-old hukou system was designed to control domestic migration and has long been a barrier on the free movement of people from rural to urban areas and between cities.