The Chinese Government will increase assistance to ensure 100 million rural residents, mostly migrant workers, to settle in cities by 2020.

The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) will evaluate the difficulties facing migrants and relax restrictions on them in obtaining urban household registration, the ministry said on January 25.

The MPS is in charge of the household registration system, or hukou, which was developed in the 1950s and divides the population into rural and urban residents. The hukou is tied to employment, housing, health and other social benefits.

An overhaul of the system is underway to help urbanization, driven by decades of rural workers seeking work in cities.

The State Council first announced the plan to help 100 million migrants settle in cities by 2020 in 2016.

The plan is part of an attempt to lift the percentage of people living in cities.

(Xinhua News Agency January 25, 2018)