Research on the Education of Migrant Children in China: A Review of the Literature

Yuanyuan Chen a, Shuaizhang Fengb , Yujie Han c

Author information


a School of Economics, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China; Key Laboratory of Mathematical Economics (Ministry of Education), Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai 200433, China

b Institue for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China

c  Institue for Economic and Social Research, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China

E-mail: yychen@mail.shufe.edu.cn (Yuanyuan Chen), shuaizhang.feng@foxmail.com (Shuaizhang Feng), hanyujie1989@gmail.com (Yujie Han)


Abstract


With the rapid urbanization and mass internal migration in China during the past several decades, the population of children who migrate with their parents to the cities has now reached over 35 million. The education of migrant children poses significant challenges to Chinas hukou based education system. In this paper, we first review the policy developments and descriptive studies related to migrant childrens education to offer a comprehensive view of the issue. We then provide in-depth examination of several important quantitative literatures, including the effect of parental migration on childrens education, schooling choices of migrant children and their impacts on school performance, peer effects of migrant children in urban public schools. Overall, although considerable progress has been made regarding migrant childrens education in China, more fundamental policy reforms are necessary to improve the quality of migrant childrens education at the compulsory education level and beyond.


Keywords


migrant children, education, public schools, migrant schools, compulsory education, hukou 


Cite this article


Yuanyuan Chen, Shuaizhang Feng, Yujie Han. Research on the Education of Migrant Children in China: A Review of the Literature. Front. Econ. China, 2019, 14(2): 168‒202 https://doi.org/10.3868/s060-008-019-0010-7

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