2009 Volume 55 Issue 2 Pages 42-55
This paper will analyze the rural population flow into cities by concentrating on a new concept of “opportunity ownership”.
The institutional reforms of the past thirty years have greatly improved patterns of distribution of opportunities in China, and rural populations have come to enjoy more options to change their work and life. However, successive Chinese governments have ignored the importance of the right of “opportunity ownership”, and hence have been unable to provide consistent and rational institutional reforms. In other words, reforms have been always ad hoc and rural residents have not been provided with equal opportunities.
Rural populations in cities tend to be segregated according to their original communities, and tend to “reproduce” and “rigidify” themselves. In this respect, there is an important and urgent need for rural populations in cities to protect their right of “opportunity ownership” as well as their property rights in order to promote their mobility and integration into host communities.
It is also important to keep on examining the concept of “right of opportunity ownership” both theoretically and empirically.
