Abstract

By assigning citizenship according to people’s blood relations and their geographic residency, the Chinese Household Registration System (hukou) not only segregates rural and urban spaces, but also unjustifiably categorizes and entrenches its citizens through long-lasting restrictions on social welfare, human capital, and upward mobility. This research project attempts to add to the understanding of Chinese internal migration in two ways: a) by offering a systematic examination of political, normative, and cultural forms of social exclusion embedded in hukou that intersect with the idea of citizenship and create “intra-cities” urban migrants; b) a comparative analysis of two exclusive institutions—India’s caste and China’s hukou. By highlighting the generalized features of these two systems, this study hopes to promote coalitions across fields, frames, and contexts to better illuminate the inadequacies of current welfare states. Subsequently, an onomasiological analysis of the institutions of social exclusion will be presented to explain how hukou is mobilized by the “remnants” of the past and functions as a form of caste-like system. Lastly, policy measures and recent reforms of the registration system will be addressed. This research hopes to inspire people to eventually transcend from the ontology of systematic exclusion and contrive what is truly vital in the process of liberation.