Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing is a timely book that addresses the gap in the provision of basic education to migrant children in China. It examines the case of Beijing, with a focus on policy implementation at the municipal and district levels and its impacts on migrant schools and their students. Rural migrant workers in the cities usually lack local hukou (household registration) and face serious obstacles in accessing basic social services, including schooling for their children. The educational situation of these children, however, can vary both across and within localities, and, despite policies and regulations from the central government, there have emerged broad and sometimes even extreme differences in the implementation of these policies at the local levels. This book uses evidence from qualitative interviews and the analysis of policy documents and materials to provide readers with a rare glimpse into the local politics surrounding migrant children’s education in China’s political center, including the nature of and motives behind policy implementation at the municipal and district levels and the implications for the survival and development of migrant schools in the city. Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing is a unique and in-depth contribution to an important area and will appeal to scholars and students across a range of disciplines, including China studies, migration studies, education, social policy, and development studies, as well as to practitioners and policymakers working on migrant issues and social welfare provision in China.

There are more than 225 million rural-to-urban migrant workers, and some 20 million migrant children in Chinese cities. Because of policies related to the household registration (hukou) system, migrant students are not allowed a public high school education in the cities, so their urban education stops abruptly at the end of middle school. This book investigates the post-middle school education and labor market decisions of migrant students in Beijing and Shanghai, and provides a glimpse into the future of a crucial link in China’s development. The stories of how these migrant students seek upward mobility and urban citizenship also reveal one of the most intricate structural inequalities in China today. Based on quantitative data collected from middle schools in Beijing and Shanghai, and ethnographic data drawing on in-depth interviews with migrant children, their parents, and teachers, this book offers a portrait of the migration and educational experiences and prospects of second generation migrant youth in China today. It explores the urban experience of migrant students, contrasting it with that of local city youngsters, examining the migrant students’ family backgrounds, family dynamics, neighborhood and school experience, and interaction with locals. It goes on to look at the migrant students’ education and career aspirations, the structural obstacles preventing their fulfilment, and how migrant families respond to institutional constraints on educational opportunity. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of policy implications and offers proposals for resolving the dilemmas of migrant youth. This book will of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese studies, Asian education, migration and social development.

There are more than 225 million rural-to-urban migrant workers, and some 20 million migrant children in Chinese cities. Because of policies related to the household registration (hukou) system, migrant students are not allowed a public high school education in the cities, so their urban education stops abruptly at the end of middle school. This book investigates the post-middle school education and labor market decisions of migrant students in Beijing and Shanghai, and provides a glimpse into the future of a crucial link in China’s development. The stories of how these migrant students seek upward mobility and urban citizenship also reveal one of the most intricate structural inequalities in China today. Based on quantitative data collected from middle schools in Beijing and Shanghai, and ethnographic data drawing on in-depth interviews with migrant children, their parents, and teachers, this book offers a portrait of the migration and educational experiences and prospects of second generation migrant youth in China today. It explores the urban experience of migrant students, contrasting it with that of local city youngsters, examining the migrant students’ family backgrounds, family dynamics, neighborhood and school experience, and interaction with locals. It goes on to look at the migrant students’ education and career aspirations, the structural obstacles preventing their fulfilment, and how migrant families respond to institutional constraints on educational opportunity. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of policy implications and offers proposals for resolving the dilemmas of migrant youth. This book will of great interest to students and scholars of Chinese studies, Asian education, migration and social development.

Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing is a timely book that addresses the gap in the provision of basic education to migrant children in China. It examines the case of Beijing, with a focus on policy implementation at the municipal and district levels and its impacts on migrant schools and their students. Rural migrant workers in the cities usually lack local hukou (household registration) and face serious obstacles in accessing basic social services, including schooling for their children. The educational situation of these children, however, can vary both across and within localities, and, despite policies and regulations from the central government, there have emerged broad and sometimes even extreme differences in the implementation of these policies at the local levels. This book uses evidence from qualitative interviews and the analysis of policy documents and materials to provide readers with a rare glimpse into the local politics surrounding migrant children’s education in China’s political center, including the nature of and motives behind policy implementation at the municipal and district levels and the implications for the survival and development of migrant schools in the city. Educating the Children of Migrant Workers in Beijing is a unique and in-depth contribution to an important area and will appeal to scholars and students across a range of disciplines, including China studies, migration studies, education, social policy, and development studies, as well as to practitioners and policymakers working on migrant issues and social welfare provision in China.

Children are precious in China especially as its population ages rapidly. The unprecedented fast urbanization and massive internal migration have profoundly changed almost every aspect of society. They have impacted the livelihood of children of migrants most. Because of the hukou system and related policies, China’s internal migrants face major obstacles to assimilate into cities. But more than that, as this book shows, these policies have also torn families apart on a scale unseen heretofore. More than 100 million children grow up in unstable families and the great majority have suffered from prolonged separation from their parents in the migratory upheaval. This book provides an updated analysis of this mega and painful process unfolding at various geographical scales. The chapters revolve around the central notion of family togetherness, or the lack thereof. The book measures, dissects, and analyses the impacts of migration on children and recommends policies to address major problems from a variety of disciplinary perspectives employing different methodologies. The problems faced by the children of migrants remain enormous, and it is a looming huge crisis in the making. If unaddressed, those problems can damage a whole generation with serious consequences. The chapters in this book were first published in Eurasian Geography and Economics.

With the large-scale migration of the population and the migration of migrant workers into cities, migrant children’s education has become one of China’s current important issues in education. The paper first reviews the evolution of migrant children's education policies in China and the latest developments in related policies. It also introduces the family education issues and social issues of migrant children and presents the basic overview of migrant children education. The second part of the paper focuses on the specific content of compulsory education for migrant children. These include new conditions and new problems in pre-school education, high school entrance examination policies and compulsory education for migrant children in different regions. In megacities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, the policy of “controlling the population through education” has emerged as a result of the reduce policy to the number of people, which has greatly affected the educational accessibility of migrant children. After 2014, the cities of the Yangtze River Delta, the cities of the Pearl River Delta, and other provincial capital cities have begun to implement a residence permit system, and have set points for admission and points for entry. From the actual situation, this is mainly for highly educated and high-income group, low-educated and low-income migrant workers and their children cannot get the benefits which they deserve from this system. The point system not only fails to provide sufficient educational resources for public schools but also does not allow private schools (migrant children schools) to further develop. The final part of the paper discusses the policy of reforming migrant children's education and also analyzes the different opinions of different scholars. At the end of the article, I put forward my views on the issue of migrant children's education, and suggest a more fundamental way to solve such problems.

With Chinese economic reform, masses of people have moved from rural areas to cities to seek job opportunities, many bringing school-aged children along with them. This migration has promoted the development of urbanization, but also created many education problems for the inflow cities. This study uses government databases and interviews from migrant workers to compare education models of four cities: Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Jiangsu. In particular, this research analyzes the differences between public schools, private schools and migrant children educational experience in different cities. Moreover, the study attempts to find the optimal education model for this group and whether it is applicable to other cities. The findings reveal that even though the education model is unique for every city, the local government should eliminate household registration and increase education funding in order to ensure migrant children receive equal educational access.