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Acquired but Unvested Welfare Rights: Migration and Entitlement Barriers in Reform-Era China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 June 2018

Li Zhang  and
Meng Li
Li Zhang*
Affiliation:
School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University.
Meng Li
Affiliation:
School of Social Development and Public Policy, Fudan University.
*
Email: lizhangfudan@fudan.edu.cn (corresponding author).
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Abstract

Scholars studying Chinese development have long acknowledged the significance of the hukou system in impeding internal migration and defining welfare entitlements. However, another crucial barrier is often overlooked: the incomplete transferability of acquired welfare rights. By examining the case of the Urban Employee Basic Pension System, this paper aims to understand how the limited transferability of acquired rights acts as an obstacle to labour migration and entitlement accomplishment. It also seeks to explore the factors that are accountable for the low level of welfare rights transferability. Our findings suggest that migration and entitlement barriers today may not be so much a question of a particular form of hukou exclusion but more of a problem of insufficient rights portability. An in-depth understanding of the structural constraints of China's reform-era migration and rights attainment needs to take into account the transferability of welfare entitlements for migrant workers, and go beyond a narrow conceptualization of the hukou system per se.

摘要

已有研究普遍认同，户籍制度阻碍人口迁移、导致公民权益不平等。但对权益流动性产生的影响，尚缺乏深入的实证讨论。本文以覆盖农民工的城镇职工基本养老保险制度为例，探讨权益流动的水平以及造成流动水平偏低的因素。研究结果表明，改革时期中国人口迁移和权益实现的障碍，更直接地来自于权益流动性的缺失而非户籍制度的作用。作者认为，在户籍制度不断变革的大背景下，对人口迁移和权益实现的更深入的理解，不能仅囿于对户籍制度本身的认知，对权益流动性的分析更为重要。

Keywords

urban employee basic pension systemtransferabilitybasic pensionunvested welfare rightshukou systemChina城镇职工基本养老保险制度流动性基本养老金受限福利权户籍制度
Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 235 , September 2018 , pp. 669 - 692
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Copyright
Copyright © SOAS University of London 2018 

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