Research On The Norms Of China’s Household Registration System And Social Consequences

As a basic national administrative system, household registration system hassignificant influence on the national politics and economy. At the beginning of the itsestablishment, The household register system of our country is closely related to thecontrol of the flow of population, restriction on civil liberties to migrate. Along withthe changes in economic and social conditions, restrictions on citizens of migrationare more strict especially the migration between rural areas and urban areas. Inaddition, several aspects in the unequal social welfare system are constantly added tothe household registration system. Thus finally, the urban-rural dual social structurebased on the dual structure of household registration system has formed. Nowadays,with the development of socialist market economy, the urban-rural dual structure ofhousehold registration system which strictly restricts the migration has not been adaptto social development and has brought many negative effects both in the macro ormicro level. To break the dual social structure in urban and rural areas and safeguardthe citizen’s freedom of migration has become the direction of China’s householdregistration system reform. This paper investigates and analyzes the status quo andsocial consequences of China’s household registration system, summarizes theimportant problems existing in the reform. Meanwhile discusses the value guidingrole of incorporating migration freedom into the constitution hoping to use theconcept of freedom of migration to reshape China’s household registration system.This paper consists of three parts:First part introduces the basic situation of our country’s household registrationsystem. Firstly, the paper introduces the concept of the household registration system,and by analyzing the content and function of the original and alienation function ofthe system to identify that the direction of household registration reform is to restorethe original function of as for population registration and civil relationship proof andweaken its alienation function in allocation of administrative resources and fiscal funds, gradually to break the associations between the qualification of social welfareand household registration. Then the paper introduces the development process ofChina’s household registration system, with focus on the formation of urban-ruraldual social structure of household registration system. In the planned economysystem, the dual structure of China’s household registration system eased theemployment pressure during the urbanization and industrialization and guaranteedsocial stability in a certain period of time. But with the development of economy,especially after the establishment of China’s socialist market economy in90’s, it hasseriously hindered the China’s urbanization process, thus the need to reform thehousehold registration system is more and more urgent. Finally, the paper studies thecurrent situation of household registration system analyzing from the lack ofconstitutional recognition of freedom of migration, lag of household registration lawcontent and active legislation of local household registration and comment on theoutcome of the current reform of local household registration system.The second part investigates the social consequences brought by the householdregistration system from the macro level and micro level perspectives. From macrolevel aspect, it leads to such effects such as the low economic efficiency, theimbalance of regional development and the lag of urbanization process; from microlevel aspect, it violates the equal rights of citizen. Different households are confrontedwith unequal treatment in employment, education, housing, social security and otherfields, even different households have impact on marriage and death compensation.The third part makes clear taking the right of free migration into constitution hasgreat significance on household registration system reform through the study on theright of free migration, the concept of which is used to reshape our country’shousehold registration system. Firstly, through the study on historical development ofright of free migration, broad and narrow definition of it is made. This paper mainlyconcentrates on its narrow sense, namely the free migration inside the country. Thenthrough the study on nature and value of free migration, the relationship between freemigration and human rights and constitution is identified. Free migration has went through the process of affirmation, limitation and pretermission in China. By studyingit, the paper analyzes the necessity and feasibility of incorporating again he freemigration into the constitution.