[Near tragedy over lack of hukou]

This is a tragic story, but there are a number of social forces which are making the hukou harder to enforce, and thus less relevant, and even counter to government policy. Here are two examples:

 

One problem has been the huge influx of migrant workers from the countryside to work as laborers in construction of the booming cities---sort of like "undocumented" workers in the US --technically, they shouldn't be employable without two things---hukou from the local county government in whatever rural province they were originally from, and secondly, permission to transfer the hukou into the province where they are seeking work. ---none of that is happening, and construction companies certainly arn't checking...so you have an underclass of illegals similar to the US.

 

Yes, hukou is similar in some ways to a birth certificate in the US, but without a birth certificate in the US there are still ways to prove your identity. In China, without a hukou book you cannot get an ID card and an ID card is the one fundamental document in China that allows you to open a bank account, get a job, register for university entrance exams and just about anything else.

 

Migrant workers have hukou and their lack of hukou in the city where they migrate to is starting to become less of an issue than it previously did. Hukou is playing less of a role in employment than before and that's one reason why there is an influx of migrant workers in most major Chinese cities. Where hukou continues to play a significant role is in obtaining social or public services such as education and any form of subsidized services.

 

There is talk of providing education to all regardless of where their hukou is from, but this is a long way off from reality. There is also talk of eliminating hukou, but this talk has been around for at least 10 years and at every step authorities state that they will not eliminate hukou. Nor should they.

 

It's absurd to equate migrant workers in China with illegal aliens in the US.

 

This girl's problem is unique in that she has NO hukou. Illegitimate children in China are often not given hukou -- party because of the one-child policy.

[purchasing a home in China]

My wife is in Shenzhen now and she has talked to the real estate person. She says that tomorrow she will see the place along with several other people. I hope she likes it but if she doesn't then she will turn it down. She is very discriminating when it comes to spending money so I trust her very much. I have the ICBC account number for her and her exact name on the account so we will see how the wiring of the money goes next week. My bank said it would not be a problem to wire the money.

BTW, she did manage to get a seat on the train as one person left a seat and she quickly took the seat. She says she enjoyed the trip and spoke with people on the train. That made me feel much better She even picked up a mobile phone there for 100 rmb as she said the internet bars were too expensive It was great to hear her beautiful voice

 

If you are doing a wire from outside of China to an account in China, it will take a few days. Never believe that crap your bank tells you about 24 hours.