The unique hukou system, a legacy of the Chinese planned economy, still requires
rural and urban residents to register their residence separately and has legitimate
discriminatory policies against migrant workers during the ongoing reform period.
Although the direction and pattern of migration in China share common features with what
has been happening in other developing countries, this institutional factor has strongly
influenced the Chinese process of migration and has made migrants a more socially
vulnerable group. The reform of the hukou system would not only bring efficiency gains,
but also eliminate the institutional root of migrants’ vulnerability in the vast regions of
China