We present findings from historical microdata that suggest former rural elites effectively preserved their socio-economic advantages into the early People's Republic of China (PRC, circa 1949–1965) by exploiting urban–rural differences in government policies. In particular, former rural elites were three to four times more likely than poor peasants to move to a nearby town, and this urbanization was highly associated with socio-economic privileges in a rapidly developing economy, including both income and educational opportunities. We also find evidence that after 1949, former rural elites who did urbanize were more likely than their poor peasant counterparts to find industrial jobs.

Scholars studying Chinese development have long acknowledged the significance of the hukou system in impeding internal migration and defining welfare entitlements. However, another crucial barrier is often overlooked: the incomplete transferability of acquired welfare rights. By examining the case of the Urban Employee Basic Pension System, this paper aims to understand how the limited transferability of acquired rights acts as an obstacle to labour migration and entitlement accomplishment. It also seeks to explore the factors that are accountable for the low level of welfare rights transferability. Our findings suggest that migration and entitlement barriers today may not be so much a question of a particular form of hukou exclusion but more of a problem of insufficient rights portability. An in-depth understanding of the structural constraints of China's reform-era migration and rights attainment needs to take into account the transferability of welfare entitlements for migrant workers, and go beyond a narrow conceptualization of the hukou system per se.