The Ones Who Follow Their Parents...
Not all migrant children are left behind in their respective villages, as some of them get to travel together with their parents. These are the migrant children in the cities. Qiaobing Wu, a doctoral candidate in social work at the University of Southern California, surveyed 815 Chinese migrant children in Shanghai (Lim, Erica). They seemed to have hostility towards society, the city and other people. It is believed that this is due to the bad conditions and discrimination the migrant children face in the cities.
Hukou System
Hukou Household Register (Resident)
In China, there is a system called the Hukou System, which was initially designed to control migration. It is a registration system that imposes rights based on whether you're registered as an urban or rural citizen. Migrants who do not have urban hukous do not gain the benefits from them (Urban). These benefits include education, health and housing in cities. For migrants from rural areas to obtain an urban hukou, they need to give up their plot of land. Many refuse to do this, since they believe that their land is a place where they could go back and live off of if they ever become unemployed. Because of this, migrants have to pay more for medical fees and their children's schooling in the cities. In China, a citizen's hukou is inherited. As such, a migrant child who grew up in a city would still be registered with a rural hukou if their parents did not register for an urban hukou themselves.
Schooling Difficulties
Nap time at a migrant school in Beijing area (Nap)
State schools do not receive funding for rural students. Therefore, when a migrant child signs up for a school, the school would often say they're full, or in other cases, would force the parents to make "donations" that could go up to 6000 yuan (approx. 950 US Dollars) per term (Branigan, Tania). Moreover, when the migrant parents lack certain documents, such as employment contracts, their children become unqualified and cannot enroll in the school. As a result, they have no choice other than to rely on private schools, but the fees are quite expensive (about 600 yuan per term). Some resort to home-schooling by a parent, but the parent may not be educationally qualified to teach the child.
Among private schools, there are migrant schools where all the students are migrant children. However, the schools are often times illegal and get shut down. Only 50 out of over 200 migrant schools in Beijing are licensed (Cheung, Jennifer). Teachers and students of those unlicensed schools have to live in insecurity and are constantly worried of getting closure notices from authorities. Migrant schools are often times converted from old factories or warehouses, making them unsafe (Lim, Erica). They often times lack qualified teachers and facilities. Moreover, high school students that graduate from unlicensed schools do not have their diplomas recognized.
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The migrant children that do make it into state schools will still receive a lot of discrimination. They are made to feel less important, looked down upon, and sometimes bullied by peers. Many migrant students feel uncomfortable around peers that are better dressed and have better grades. Some of the urban parents don't want their child to be in the same class as the migrant students; they fear that the migrant students will have a negative effect on their child's education. A China Labour Bulletin survey showed that in Guangdong province, 50% of migrant students played only with other migrant children.
There have been over 200 cases in which migrant students were only allowed to study Chinese and math. Their other peers could study those two subjects as well as arts, politics and English. Migrant parents complain that their children's homework are left uncorrected. Migrant students also receive discrimination in test scores. In Beijing, test scores that are accepted for Beijing colleges are lower for students with a Beijing hukou.
There have been over 200 cases in which migrant students were only allowed to study Chinese and math. Their other peers could study those two subjects as well as arts, politics and English. Migrant parents complain that their children's homework are left uncorrected. Migrant students also receive discrimination in test scores. In Beijing, test scores that are accepted for Beijing colleges are lower for students with a Beijing hukou.
Lack of Attention
(Lee, Thomas)
It is important for children to receive adequate attention from their parents, since it is crucial for their development. Most migrant children prefer accompanying their parents to cities, but even so, many of them are still neglected as their parents have to work hard. Many parents may leave the house before their children wake up, and return after they've fallen asleep.