Date of Graduation
Spring 5-15-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts in Migration Studies
College/School
College of Arts and Sciences
Department/Program
Migration Studies
First Advisor
Professor Bill Ong Hing
Abstract
Over the course of more than two millennia the Hukou System has shifted in scope and purpose. In dynastic times it served as a mechanism of tax acquisition. In more recent years it has functioned as a method of census and land distribution. Today it holds a duplicitous function serving as both an economic and social control mechanism. The Hukou achieves this through controlling movement through a passport like system of internal registration. In simpler terms, think of the Hukou as an internal passport regulating movement while simultaneously holding all of your biometric data which is surveilled and controlled by a centralized government institution. This work explores the duality of this system and the effects that such a system have had on two sub-sects of people within the PRC. In the first case study I examine the economic side of the Hukou and the role it plays in the lives of Han economic migrants. In the second case I examine the social-control aspect and its implementation in the Uyghur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. By engaging in this analysis, I show the possible outcomes of the continuance of such a system and how it could play a larger role in global migration governance in coming years.
Recommended Citation
Kramer, Joseph, "The Function of the Hukou System in Post-Revolutionary China & its Autonomous Regions" (2020). Master's Theses. 1285.
https://repository.usfca.edu/thes/1285
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