Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Xia, Ming --- "Movement and migration" [2019] ELECD 1314; in Biddulph, Sarah; Rosenzweig, Joshua (eds), "Handbook on Human Rights in China" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 444

Book Title: Handbook on Human Rights in China

Editor(s): Biddulph, Sarah; Rosenzweig, Joshua

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 21

Section Title: Movement and migration

Author(s): Xia, Ming

Number of pages: 27

Abstract/Description:

Freedom of movement/migration has been a major contention between the state and society in China since the Communist rule. Under the dominant logic of political/social control, the state (mainly under a totalitarian mode) has deleted the right of movement/migration from the current constitution and maintained a draconian residential registration system (hukou) that created a multi-layered and rigidly regulated hierarchy from big cities to townships and the countryside. As market-oriented reforms started and urbanization accelerated since 1980s, China has become more mobile. The emerging sense of citizenship among newly rich residents, especially among intellectuals, has generated increasing demand for the freedom of movement/migration. However, the state has continued to use and abuse its administrative control over the freedom of movement, e.g., the forced migration of the marginalized and free travel reserved as a privilege for the elite. The unfreedom of movement/migration is still the norm in China of the 21st century.