School Segregation Policy and Its Educational Ramifications for Internal Migrant Children in Urban China

Abstract

This paper reviews the current state of education for internal migrant children in urban China, with the aim of teasing out its ramifications for pedagogic equity expressed as performance outcomes. In recent years migrant children have been segregated predominantly in urban migrant schools, whereas students with a higher socioeconomic status may have access to integrated public schools populated mostly by urban children. This paper analyses publicly accessible policy papers and relevant scholarly literature to provide a contextualised interpretation of school segregation, with an aim to advance societal recognition of and responsibility for the inequities associated with the education of migrant children in China. Our intention is to tease out and make more transparent than has to date happened the implications of these disparities and inequities. It is to be hoped that this information will encourage policy makers to acknowledge that the amelioration of inequities in performance depends on reforming the current segregation procedures and administrative protocols which fail to maximise the access to equal educational opportunities to which Chinese migrant students should be entitled.

The impact of perceived discrimination on personality among Chinese migrant children: The moderating role of parental support

“…According to China’s Sixth National Population Census in 2010, there were 1.06 million migrant children, which constituted 36.28% of 0- to 17-year-old children living in Beijing (Duan et al, 2013). Estimates of the percentage of migrant children who attend migrant schools in Beijing vary from 34% to 50% (Liu & Laura, 2017; Wang, 2008). This study only includes migrant children studying in migrant schools because they are normally considered to be the most discriminated and socioeconomically disadvantaged in the urban cities (Gao et al, 2015; Liu & Zhao, 2016).…”

The Spillover Effects of Migrant Peers: Consequence for Local and Migrant Students

“…For example, in 2010, almost 30% of the approximately half a million migrant students in Shanghai attended private or migrant schools (Chen and Feng 2013;Li et al 2014). In Guangzhou, the proportion of migrant students at private or migrant schools exceeded 57% in 2015 (Liu and Laura 2017). Thus, the rigid institutional barriers created by the hukou system deliberately limit migrant students' participation in the mainstream public educational system, thus undermining the process of migrant students' integration in urban areas.…”