Residential Choice among Rural–Urban Migrants after Hukou Reform: Evidence from Suzhou, China

The reform of China's socialist residential registration system (hukou) led to a shift in the residential preferences of rural–urban migrants, whereby the meaning of ‘home’ has also been changing. Data from a 2009 survey conducted in Suzhou City in Jiangsu Province highlight some emerging strategies for residential choice. Compared with ‘first-generation’ migrants who grew up under socialism and migrated before the hukou reform, members of the ‘new generation’ born after 1980 attach less value to hukou benefits. Instead, their choice of a future place of residence appears to be related to the institutional reforms that are gradually separating social welfare provisions from the hukou system. As the draw of a local hukou declines, the strategies of a migrant's family to leverage their financial resources are found to play a bigger role in one's aspirations to establish a home in Suzhou.