Premier Wen wrote his famous slogan in 2003: ‘Under the same blue sky, grow up and progress together’. Sadly the blue sky is almost the only thing migrant children share with urban children. When Professor Li was interviewed, he was quite clear that discrimination is the main obstacle experienced by migrant children in host cities:264
After moving with migrant parents from their rural communities or less economically developed regions to the cities, migrant children face a huge life change. Everything is different to them, including the behaviour of people, the local customs, the appearance of the city and the way people think and speak. In addition to these differences, the school curricula and level of studies are different from their rural schools. When they face such huge changes in their lives, the adaptability of
263 English is a compulsory class in primary school for all students nationally. 264 Interview with Professor Li Xiuyun (n 19)
migrant children varies. Some children take quite a long time to catch up with their studies and to get used to their new life. Others may not handle things very well. However, most children are likely to be discriminated against or looked down on by the city-dwellers like their urban classmates and the teachers in state schools. However, such challenges have changed gradually after the great efforts made by the central and local governments. It appears that the adaptability of migrant children in state schools has become better than those in migrant schools.
Wang also raised the issue of discrimination in her interview:265
Many migrant parents do not want to send their children into state schools, even if they have enough money to pay temporary schooling fees. The real concern is the discrimination and intolerance on the part of Beijing students and parents in state schools. Migrant children in migrant schools would not be discriminated against in this way and would feel less peer pressure. When migrant children transfer from schools in their home towns to a state elementary school in a city, they mostly have to sit the second or third grades again, even though they have already reached the fifth or sixth grades – all because of the different curricula they have studied and the poor quality education they received. But these migrant children have already grown taller than the urban children in the second or third grades. When those two groups of children study and play together, migrant children get bullied and are discriminated against, because of the different way they look. And many migrant children are not treated as integral members of the school. Some state schools simply segregate classes into ‘migrant children’ and ‘local children’ classes, and this damages their self-confidence and hinders their integration into urban school life. So even if migrant children can be admitted into state schools, there are still many obstacles they have to face.
In addition to such segregation, Aris points out that the relationships between migrant children and their teachers in state schools is problematic.266 Urban teachers and administrators are often concerned that the enrolment of migrant children will affect the overall academic performance of a school. A teacher in a state school states that migrant children are difficult to teach, because their parents do not pay much attention to their studies and do not have time to take care of them.267 Hence, migrant children do not develop proper routines and learning habits. Moreover, a piece of research conducted by Shanghai University of Finance and Economics points out that even though migrant children can be enrolled in local state schools, they are often put into a separate class for migrant children only.268 As a result, segregation between migrant
265 Interview with Wang Xingjuan (n 8) 266
Chan (n 37) 39; Goodburn (n 48) 498 267 Human Rights in China (n 56) 28
268 Shuaizhang Feng and Yuanyuan Chen, ‘Policy Suggestions for Internal Migrant Children and their Schooling’ <http://iar.shufe.edu.cn/structure/gdyjy/xsyj/yjbg_con_90672_1.htm> accessed 19 June 2012
children and local children within state schools has become another problem of concern.269 A study entitled Social adaptability of migrant children to city life by the Chinese Youth Research Centre shows that a higher percentage of migrant students agreed with the following statements than did local children: ‘(1) Teachers do not understand me; (2) Teachers seldom pay attention to me; (3) The Principal does not like me; and (4) I am not satisfied with teacher-student relationships.’270
Aside from the unsatisfactory relationship with urban teachers, migrant children, Woronov points out, are likely to be discriminated against by local parents.271 She states that ‘people in Beijing were unanimous in telling me that they did not want their children in the same classroom as migrant children’, because they would ‘inevitably’ be a negative influence on a school’s ‘xiao feng’ (learning atmosphere) and would set a bad example to urban children in the school.272 Indeed, children with a rural background are still regarded negatively by local residents and are described as ‘impolite, retarded, self-abased, dirty, dark skinned and brutal’ because of lack of family education and discipline, as a consequence of the low educational level of their rural parents.273 Moreover, local parents believe that migrant workers are not only ‘low quality’ (suzhi) themselves and have little interest in or respect for education, but are unable to raise their children properly.274 In practice, although 90 per cent of migrant children were attending state schools in Shanghai by 2010, many local parents decided to transfer their children to other schools simply so that their children would not attend the same school as the migrant children.275 Furthermore, migrant children in urban state schools often complain about being bullied by local urban children. As a result, many migrant children feel anxious. Some have developed psychological problems,
269 Ibid 270
The China Youth Research Centre, ‘Research Project Shows that Migrant Children Have Both Positive and Negative Responses to School’ (China Education Daily, 24 Jan 2007)
271 Woronov (n 103) 109 272 Ibid, 109 273 Yi Lin (n 108) 319 274
Woronov (n 103) 109; Woronov points out that the main reason for discrimination against migrants by local residents in Beijing is that rural farmers are thought to carry with them all the ‘ideological baggage that has been thrust upon China’s rural areas: they are understood to embody China’s weakness, lack of modernity, and backwardness.’ This is why they are being looked down on as a ‘source of dirt, crime, and disorder’. Woronov (n 76) 294
such as low self-esteem, depression and even tendencies to anti-social behaviour as a result of the change in their environment.276 Indeed, Wong, Chang and others correctly state that closeness and companionship with peers, enabling the sharing of joys and sadnesses, has great significance for the well-being of migrant children. If they cannot establish and maintain good peer relationships, they may become susceptible to ‘poor psychological health and low self-esteem’.277 A 14 year-old-boy who came to the city of Hangzhou when he was ten years old wrote:
I come from a rural community. I am now living in a city, but I am not living a city life. What am I – a half city-dweller and a half peasant? My parents are busy working and they do not pay much attention to me. Many times, I feel very lonely. Teachers only come to my home to tell my parents about my bad behaviour. This is no use. My parents have no time to care about me […]. Most of the time, they stay in a dormitory. Otherwise, they come home late and go out early every day. I usually see them a few times in a week. When I do see them they merely nag me about my bad performance in school or lecture me about other things, like I was a three-year-old. When I feel lonely, I watch TV, or wander around the neighbourhood, or go to an internet café. I feel better when my parents are not at home. Local [urban] children are very lucky. They look down on us. It is difficult for us to make friends with them […].278
Research conducted by the China Youth Research Centre on social adaptability of migrant children shows that they are also confused about their current social status:279 90 per cent of migrant children in Beijing did not see themselves as Beijingers and 10 per cent felt that they neither belonged to the capital nor to their home towns.280 Sun points out that, even though many migrant children have lived in the city for a long time, they are still confused about where they come from.281 For example, the majority of migrant children think of themselves as ‘rural people’; some do not know which they prefer, host city or home town.282 Although many children
276 Interview with Wang Xingjuan (n 8); Human Rights in China (n 56) 29 277 Wong, Chang, He and Wu (n 20) 152
278 ‘Dandelion Wants home: a Story of a Migrant Child in Hangzhou’ <http://qjwb.zjol.com.cn/> accessed 20 August 2011
279 ‘Migrant Children Are Far From Homes, But Seven Out of Ten Are Happy with Life in Beijing’ < http://edu.china.com/1055/20070130/13910997.html > accessed 27 June 2011
280 Ibid. 281 Ibid. 282 Ibid.
enjoy life in Beijing, they often refer to themselves as ‘rural people’ in conversation.283 Wang points out that second-generation migrants to the cities are not willing to be as transient as their parents were, and would resist a future of moving from place to place, with little constancy in their lives.284 He finds that the migrant children he interviewed no longer fit in with their lives back in their villages: these children neither understand nor have any interest in farming; moreover, some of them even think of rural people as ‘tuqi’ (‘hick’) and ‘zang’ (dirty).285
However, migrant children do not fully fit in with urban society either, and they are discriminated against. As Wang emphasises, if these children were to grow up without a sense of belonging, the results would not only cause negative impacts on their psychological and personality development, but could also cause some serious social problems as a whole in the future.286 Professor Liang expressed similar concerns in his interview:287
The issue of urbanisation in China is not merely a process of making cities more modern and allowing more rural people to live in them. Rather, it should aim at integrating migrants and their children into the city. The basic elements for achieving this are: providing real equal opportunities to migrant children in accessing urban state schools and providing basic social welfare, such as healthcare and social participation. If migrant children just feel discriminated against and unwanted, what does this mean for the future in China? If society treats them unfairly, what can it expect in return from migrant children when they have grown up?