According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as of the end of June 2023, the number of migrant workers in China who have migrated to urban areas has reached an astonishing 2900 million. Their average monthly income is 4,615 yuan, and it shows a continuous growth trend. In addition, by the end of 2022, our country has 1400 million rural residents with household registration have settled in cities and towns through various means, bringing the urbanization rate of the registered population to 477%。
Cities are better than rural areas in terms of basic social security, medical conditions, educational resources, infrastructure, employment options, and so on. This is the fundamental reason for attracting a large number of rural people to cities. Many rural residents hope to enjoy more urban benefits through the transfer of hukou. Therefore, "hukou determines welfare" is not empty talk, but has a factual basis.
However, rural residents also face a series of pressures in urban life. Employment pressure, economic pressure, pension pressure, and the inheritance of rural homestead housing are all issues they are worried about. In particular, those former rural residents who have settled in the cities are eager to transfer their household registration from the city to the countryside and regain their personal rights and interests related to homesteads and contracted land.
At present, the excessive concentration of urban populations has caused a series of problems. Increasing competition for jobs, increasing urban burdens, strained medical and educational resources, and traffic congestion are becoming more serious. In order to solve these problems, it is particularly important to appropriately relax the conditions for hukou relocation. Allowing residents who have settled in the city to move from the city to the countryside can not only relieve the pressure on the city, but also contribute to the development of the rural pension industry and solve the problems of the hollowing out of the rural population and the high vacancy rate of rural houses.
For the children who have moved out of their hukou, whether they can regain the right to use the homestead and how to inherit the homestead assets are the focus of their attention. According to the current homestead management measures, farmers who have lost their collective membership due to their children moving out of their household registration cannot rebuild their homestead properties even if they inherit them in accordance with the law.
However, if the policy of transferring household registration from urban to rural areas is relaxed, the second-generation children of farmers who have moved out of their household registration can regain their membership in collective economic organizations, which will enable them to normally dispose of the homesteads owned by the collective and avoid the loss of assets.
At present, some provinces have taken measures to open up new channels for returning to villages to settle down. For example, Hebei, Jiangsu and other places have included outstanding university graduates, entrepreneurs returning to their hometowns, and talents urgently needed for rural revitalization into the key care groups of the policy of returning to villages and settling down. This provides a new way for children who have moved out of their hukou to apply to return to their villages through specific means.
With the redefinition of the members of village collectives in the Rural Collective Economic Organization Law (Draft), children who have moved out of their hukou are expected to be able to regain the right to use the homestead land.
If this law is passed and approved, those children who have moved out of their hukou will be expected to enjoy the rights and interests of homesteads in accordance with laws and regulations by becoming members of rural collective economic organizations again, and will renovate the inherited farmhouses.
To sum up, although the state has abolished the dual household registration management system, the rights and interests of farmers have not been affected. For those second-generation children who have moved out of the household registration who want to return to the village for retirement, it is wise to take action as soon as possible. They should apply to return to the village as soon as possible so that they can renovate their farmhouses and retain their rights and interests such as homesteads during their lifetime.