The most important thing if you are a graduate is to receive your degree certificate from your university.
Well, no! Actually, if you think that, you are being naive. The most important thing is your hukou.
Hukou is the country’s unique household registration system and the most essential proof of identity in China.
In China, if you have no hukou, you will be heihu, which means you will face various troubles, such as not being able to apply for an identity card — which is necessary for many things — you won’t be able to register to marry, you won’t be able to receive social assistance, and you might even be suspected of illegal immigration.
University graduates usually change hukou when they go to university. They become a temporary citizen of the city where there university is located. However, after graduation, the student’s hukou will revert to where they are from, unless they find a job that includes the right to settle in the city, such as those with public institutions, which can generally provide a local hukou.
But not every graduate can be so lucky and their only choice is to move back to the place of their hukou.
The problem is hukou isare related to many benefits.
Take Beijing, for example. If you weren’t born in the city and want to become a Beijing resident, it’s very difficult. Beijing is the dream of many people because of its prosperity, culture and unique identity.
To graduates, a Beijing hukou not only grants permission to live in the city, it also means access to a variety of opportunities.
It has been reported that a Beijing hukou is worth 180,000 yuan.
Is it really worth that?
“It is,” Wang Taiyuan, a professor at the China Public Security University and expert on household registration reform, told People Daily online.
Hukou have various advantages, especially for the students from rural areas, who if they can work in a bigger city have a chance to change their fate
After graduating, students’ futures are at the mercy of their hukou.
I hope this will change and that China’s youth can dream of a life that is not shackled by hukou.
Ma Xin is an editor of M4.cn and can be reached at tomaxin@163.com.