Chinas Hukou System

Chinas Hukou System Chinas Hukou system is a family registration program that serves as a domestic passport, regulating population distribution and rural-to-urban migration. It is a tool for social and geographic control that enforces an apartheid structure that denies farmers the same rights and benefits enjoyed by urban residents.    History of the Hukou System The modern Hukou system was formalized as a permanent program in 1958.   The system was created to ensure social, political, and economic stability.   Chinas economy was largely agrarian during the early days of the Peoples Republic of China.  In order to speed up industrialization, the government prioritized heavy industry by following the Soviet model.   In order to finance this expansion, the state underpriced agricultural products, and overpriced industrial products to induce an unequal exchange between the two sectors, essentially paying peasants less than market price for their agricultural goods.   In order to sustain this artificial imbalance, the government had to create a system which restricts the free flow of resources, especially labor, between industry and agriculture, and between city and countryside.    Individuals became categorized by the state as either rural or urban, and they were required to stay and work within their designated geographic areas.   Traveling was permitted under controlled conditions, but residents assigned to a certain area will not be given access to jobs, public services, education, healthcare, and food in another area.   A rural farmer who chooses to move to the city without a government-issued Hukou would essentially share the same status an illegal immigrant in the United States.   Obtaining an official rural-to-urban Hukou change is extremely difficult.   The Chinese government has tight quotas on conversions per year.    Effects of the Hukou System The Hukou system has historically always benefited the urbanites.   During the Great Famine of the mid-twentieth century, individuals with rural Hukous were collectivized into communal farms, where much of their agricultural output were taken in the form of a tax by the state and given to city dwellers.   This led to massive starvation in the countryside, and the Great Leap Forward would not be abolished until the effects were felt in the cities. After the Great Famine, rural residents continued to be marginalized, while urban citizens enjoyed a range of socio-economic benefits.   Even today, a farmers income is one-sixth that of the average urban dweller.   Farmers have to pay three times more in taxes, but receive a lower standard of education, healthcare, and life.   The Hukou system impedes upward mobility, creating essentially a caste system that governs Chinese society.    Since the capitalistic reforms of the late 1970s, an estimated 260 million rural dwellers have illegally moved to the cities, in an attempt to partake in the remarkable economic development taking place there.   These migrants brave discrimination and possible arrest while living on the urban fringe in shantytowns, railway stations, and street corners.   They are often blamed for rising crime and unemployment.    Reform With Chinas rapid industrialization, the Hukou system needed to be reformed in order to adapt to the countrys new economic reality.   In 1984, the State Council conditionally opened the door of market towns to peasants.   Country residents were allowed to get a new type of permit called, â€Å"self-supplied food grain† Hukou, provided that they satisfied a number of requirements.   The primary requirements are that a migrant must be employed in enterprise, have their own accommodations in the new location, and be able to self-provide their own food grain.   Holders are still not eligible for many state services and they cannot move to other urban areas ranked higher than that particular town.    In 1992, the PRC launched another form of permit called the blue-stamp Hukou.   Unlike the self-supplied food grain Hukou, which is limited to certain business peasants, the blue stamp Hukou is open to a wider population and allowed migration into bigger cities.   Some of these cities included the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), which were havens for foreign investments.   Eligibility was primarily limited to those with familial relations with domestic and overseas investors.   Ã‚  The Hukou system experienced another form of liberation in 2001​ after China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO).   Although WTO membership exposed Chinas agricultural sector to foreign competition, leading to job losses, it galvanized the labor-intensive sectors, particularly in textile and clothing, leading to an urban labor demand.   The intensity of patrols and documentation inspections were relaxed.    In 2003, changes were also made to how illegal migrants are to be detained and processed.   This was the result of a media and internet-frenzied case in which a college educated urbanite named, Sun Zhigang, was beaten to death after he was taken into custody for working in the megacity of Guangzhou without the proper Hukou ID. Despite the reforms, the current Hukou system still remains fundamentally intact because of the continuing disparities between the states agricultural and industrial sectors.   Although the system is highly controversial and vilified, a complete abandonment of the Hukou is not practical, due to the complexity and interconnectedness of the modern Chinese economic society.   Its removal could lead to a migration so massive that it could cripple city infrastructures and destroy the rural economy.   For now, minor changes will continue to be made to the Hukou, as it coincides with Chinas shifting political climate.

Verbal Behavior Analysis (VBA) Helps Children With Language Deficits

Verbal Behavior Analysis (VBA) Helps Children With Language Deficits Verbal Behavior Analysis, or VBA, is a language intervention strategy based on the work of B.F. Skinner. An American psychologist, social philosopher, and inventor, Skinner was a leading figure in the branch of psychology known as Behaviorism. This school of psychology derives from â€Å"the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained and changed,† according to Psychology Today. With this in mind, Verbal Behavior Analysis can be a powerful approach to addressing the language deficits of children on the autism spectrum. Autism is a developmental disorder that makes it difficult for children and adults who have the condition to communicate and interact with others. But Skinner posited that language is learned behavior mediated by others. He introduced the terms Mand, Tact, and Intraverbal to describe three different kinds of verbal behaviors. Defining the Terms Manding is either demanding or commanding others for desired objects or activities. Tacting is identifying and naming objects, and intraverbals are utterances (language) mediated by other language, often called pragmatics by speech and language pathologists. What Occurs During VBA Treatment? In VBA treatment, a therapist sits with an individual child and presents preferred items. The child will receive the preferred item when he or she imitates the therapist and mands or requests the item. The therapist will ask a child for a number of responses, often in quick succession, known as massed trials or discrete trial training. The therapist will build on success by having the child select from more than one preferred item, by demanding clearer or more audible approximations of the word in order receive the preferred item (called shaping) and mixing it up with other preferred activities. This first step is done once a child has exhibited success in manding, especially manding in phrases, the therapist will move ahead with tacting. When a child succeeds in learning and naming familiar objects, the therapist will build on that with intraverbals,  naming relationships. For example, the therapist will ask, Jeremy, where is the hat? The child will then respond, The hat is under the chair. The therapist will help the child generalize these verbal skills to a variety of settings, such as school, in public and at home with parents or caregivers. How VBA Differs From ABA The MyAutismClinic website states that ABA and VBA, though related, are not the same. What’s the difference between the two? â€Å"ABA is the science that uses principles of behavior like reinforcement, extinction, punishment, stimulus control, motivation to teach new behaviors, modify and/or terminate maladaptive behaviors,† the MyAutismClinic site states. â€Å"Verbal Behavior or VB  is simply the application of these scientific principles to language.† The site states  that some people believe that ABA is more efficient than VBA, but this is a misconception. â€Å"A well-trained professional should make use of the principles of ABA in all areas of the child’s development including language,† according to MyAutismClinic. VBA is simply a comprehensive ABA approach to language.