Sources consulted by the Research Directorate use "non-family" (China 9 July 2009; ibid. 21 Apr. 2007) and "collective" (Lecturer 17 July 2009; Professor 20 July 2009) to refer to jiti hukou, a type of household registration. In 17 July 2009 correspondence with the Research Directorate, a lecturer in social policy who is also a research associate at the Centre for the Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics and Political Science, whose publication history includes a focus on housing policies in China, indicated that jiti hukou, which is based on group household registration of non-family members, can be translated as "collective" hukou. A Professor of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who has published extensively on China's hukou system, corroborated in 20 July 2009 correspondence that the jiti hukou can be translated as "collective" hukou, which is the danwei (unit) based registration of, for example, military personnel, employees and students.
An official from the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ottawa provided the Research Directorate with the following information regarding household registration for a non-family group:
[h]ouseholds in China are currently administered in terms of 'family group' households and 'non-family group' households. A household registered as a 'family group' is one where there is a 'consanguineous marriage or adoptive relationship,' while a household registered as a 'non-family group' is one where there are 'people living together who are not related by blood to each other' - i.e., people living collectively in professional relationships, within government agencies, organizations, schools, enterprises or establishments, or in public dormitories. (9 July 2009)
The information provided by the Official indicated that if individuals wish to leave their work unit, for example, their household registration needs to change (China 9 July 2009). For instance, if an individual leaves his or her work unit and returns to the province or city that he or she came from, "the household registration must also revert to that place" (ibid.).
The Official also provided the Research Directorate with the 2007 municipal regulations for the household registration of non-family groups in Quanzhou; these regulations are based on the "People's Republic of China Household Registration Regulations" (China 21 Apr. 2007). According to the regulations, the units that are eligible to register as a non-family household include the following: "government agencies, organizations, military units, enterprises, establishments, schools, monasteries, personnel intermediary agencies, etc" (ibid.). The regulations also state that there must be 20 people or more to fulfil the conditions for non-family group household registration (ibid.).
The regulations specify that the local police station where the work unit is located is responsible for the administration of non-family household registration (ibid.). Once a work unit is established, the group must designate a person to assist the "public security organ" with managing the household registration and be responsible for "storing the 'non-family group household register' issued by the public security organ" (ibid.). Finally, the regulations stipulate that people who leave their work unit because they have "retired, left the job, or been expelled from working at the job" no longer maintain their non-family household registration; instead, they transfer back to their original registration or to the registration where their spouse or children live (ibid.).
The Lecturer explained that the collective hukou is based on work or study status, which allows, for example, a person with a Beijing hukou who is going to study at a university in Shanghai to move his or her hukou registration to a collective hukou in Shanghai; this collective hukou will expire when the person graduates (17 July 2009). In this sense, the collective hukou acts as a temporary arrangement (Lecturer 17 July 2009). The Lecturer further explained that the collective hukou does not look the same as the ordinary hukou, because it is not an individual booklet kept by each resident, but rather a piece of paper with basic personal information, which is "attached to a collection of cards of other members of the collective and with a cover showing the name of the school or employer" (ibid.). Together, these cards are kept at the hukou administration office of the local public security bureau (ibid).
If individuals need to show proof of their collective hukou status, the Lecturer indicated that the administration office provides a letter with an official seal (ibid.). The Professor of International Affairs similarly noted that individuals in a collective household do not have their own hukou booklet, since their hukou "file/card" is kept at the local police station, but that they can access their record of registration at the local police station upon request (27 July 2009).
The Professor of International Affairs also noted that a person who has a family can be a member of a collective household, if the person's danwei is located in a different hukou zone as his or her family (20 July 2009). The Lecturer explained that the family members of someone who is registered in a collective household do not share the same status; for instance, "the child of a parent with jiti hukou is not allowed to take university entrance exams in the [parent's] city" (17 July 2009). The Lecturer further noted that previously the children of parents with jiti hukou were not allowed to live in the city where the parent resided, but that the policy changed in 2007 allowing children to settle with fathers who hold jiti hukou (17 July 2009).
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim for refugee protection. Please find below the list of sources consulted in researching this Information Request.
References
China. 9 July 2009. "Definition of 'Non-Family Group' of Household Registration." Material provided by an official of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in Ottawa. Chinese to English translation by the Multilingual Translation Directorate, Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services, Canada
_____. 21 April 2007. "Quanzhou Municipal Non-Family Group Household and Non-Family Group Household Administrative Regulations (Provisional)." Chinese to English translation by the Multilingual Translation Directorate, Translation Bureau, Public Works and Government Services, Canada <http:www.qzpolice.com/xxgk_show.asp?id=118> [Accessed 6 Aug. 2009]
Lecturer, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science. 17 July 2009. Correspondence.
Professor of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. 27 July 2009. Correspondence.
_____. 20 July 2009. Correspondence.
Additional Sources Consulted
Oral sources: A professor at the University of Texas at Dallas did not have information on this Request. A professor at Syracuse University, two professors at the University of Michigan and a professor at the University of Nottingham did not respond within the time constraints of this Response.
Internet sites, including: Amnesty International (AI), Asia Times [Hong Kong], Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, China Radio International (CRI), European Country of Origin Information Network (ecoi.net), Human Rights in China (HRIC), Ministry of Public Security - China, Radio Free Asia (RFA), United Kingdom (UK) Home Office, United States (US) Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), US Department of State, Xinhua News Agency.