Lacking a koseki (household registration), foreigners on temporary visas working illegally can get no social services.

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One of the greatest issues for China's 250 million migrant workers is the "hukou" system of household registration.

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In China's system of household registration (known as hukou), children born to rurally registered parents count as rural, even if their parents have migrated to the city, and regardless of where they themselves were born.

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Rothman added that he was confident in Beijing managing a slower growth rate while making essential reforms to a household registration system that deters migrants from settling in cities and trying to join the middle class.

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Critics also point out that the social-housing programme will mostly benefit urban residents, whose household-registration certificates, or hukou, identify them as city residents.

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