Better city, better life, but for whom?: The hukou and resident card system and the consequential citizenship stratification in Shanghai

This paper uses the concept of citizenship in the social sense of membership and the right to an allocation of resources to examine the urban citizenship of migrants in Chinese metropolises with special reference to Shanghai. Citizenship in the Chinese context is interlocked with the household registration (hukou) system instituted more than 50 years ago. The paper tracks the changes in both the defacto and the hukou population in selected Chinese cities in the past 30 years to analyze how large the gate of the hukou system has been opened and under what circumstances urban hukou is conferred on migrants. Facing a flood of migration, the Shanghai Municipal Government has introduced a residence card system without challenging the existing hukou system. Blended new wine in an old bottle, a hierarchical structure of population registration and management has been set up leading to a system of citizenship stratification, which allows the municipal government to trade the differential citizenship for talents, capital, and super-low-cost labor and to avoid the social obligations to the non-constituents.

Research highlights► A hierarchical hukou and residence card system is established to manage migrants. ► The hukou and residence card system determines stratified urban citizenship. ► The gate of the hukou system opens only for talented and wealthy migrants. ► The road to hukou attainment is prolonged by granting migrants residence card first. ► Stratified citizenship creates inequality among migrants.