All migrant children encounter some challenges when adapting to a new environment, regardless of where they are from and what experiences they have. Adjustment to a new environment and new culture can present unique challenges for migrant children (McCarthy, 1998). Family migration could encounter significant socio-economic challenges. This is particularly true for migrants without local social status, who are denied access to support and protection service. Thus, migrant children’s family socio-economic status in a host society has great influence on migrant children’s social lives.
5.4.1 Social exclusion: the household registration system
Kabeer (2000) argued that social rules define people who can have access to resources from those who cannot, in which ways and to what degree, and determine people’s membership and entitlement. In the context of China, the household registration system allocates social resources and appoints people’s identities. In the case of this study, as discussed in previous chapters, the household registration system distinguishes urban children who can enjoy the benefit of urban resources from migrant children who cannot, and it also limits migrant children to change their identities from the rural to the urban. Migrant people could change their identities from rural to urban with certain requirements, such as buying a house in the city with full payment. However, according to Guo (2010) and supported by the findings of this study, there are few rural people who can meet all the requirements for a household transformation. During the interview, the teacher of Grade five mentioned that:
“The household registration system determines that children with rural status are different from urban children. There are special migrant schools in Shenyang. Even though migrant children study at our school, they still cannot go to middle school in the city. They have to return back to their villages for their study in middle school. Moreover, they cannot attend the university entrance exam here”.
The local population seemed conscious about the different treatments of local and migrants. Xiaode’s (local boy, age 9) mother dropped him off and picked him up at school every day, and one day she told me that:
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“The household registration system has existed for many years. Under this law, some resources are accessible for us. The migrant children are not entitled to these. They are treated differently”.
Moreover, as I discussed before, the urban school has additional procedures for enrolment. In order to get a place in this school, most migrant children had to live in the school district three years before applying for the school. Thus, barriers created by the household registration system reinforce the difference and separation of local and migrant children. The unequal treatment received by migrant children contributes to the exclusion of them in Shenyang.
5.4.2 Economic exclusion
The family economic condition directly decides children’s living environment and educational resources. Under the household registration system, the social status of migrants strongly influences their economic situation because it determines their opportunities for employment. Many migrants have to accept jobs with unfair conditions and low salary (see the previous part of this chapter).
In the current study, as discussed in the previous part, twelve migrant families earned less than 2000 RMB (320 US$) each month, which was regarded as a poor economic situation by the teacher. Ten families gained more than 2000 but less than 3000 RMB (480 US$) and the teacher indicated that this amount of money could only afford the basic living costs in Shenyang. Although parents did not need to pay tuition for children in primary school, there were still some other expenses for their study, such as textbooks, exercise books, stationery and school uniform. Besides expenditure on education, parents also needed to spend money on accommodation and food.
The empirical data shows the family economic condition of migrant children was a huge barrier for their integration. During the school break time, local children often played badminton or basketball but migrant children was not able to play with local children since they did not have the money to buy the bats or to improve their sports skills to play with (see the socializing experience of migrant children in leisure time in chapter 7). At lunch time, a large amount of migrant children did not join in the school lunch programs. After-school programs are expensive in China and most of migrant children did not participate in this kind of programs. Even if
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migrant children lived close to local children, they could not invite them to their home due to small size of their houses. Migrant parents could not let their children to participate in some of the school activities which required extra costs or materials in order to avoid the extra economic burden. The teacher of Grade five told me that school just organized the activity of airplane model contest.
“There are 52 students participated in the airplane model contest but none of them were migrant children. For this contest, participants were required to pay 400 RMB (70 US$) for the materials. Migrant children do not have many opportunities to develop their hobbies as local children do due to the financial situation of their families. This is educational inequality for them”.
Here is an excerpt from an interview during a household visit to a migrant family:
“My daughter is doing good job at school. I knew it was not easy for her since as parents, we could not give her a lot of help on her study. She loves singing and can sing many songs. She learned singing basically from TV programs. If we get more money, I love to pay for the professional training for her”.
(Huizi’s mother migrant girl, age 8)
Local children played games and participated in activities together. Gradually they formed their own groups based on their interests. Migrant children did not have the economic resources to get involved in the activities that local children did. Although migrant children also constructed their own cultural group, they could not play with local children together. A relation between children is built on shared interests and how much time they spend together. Therefore, it was not urban children’s intention to exclude migrant children, but the lower standard of living conditions prevented migrant children from integrating in the new society with local children. When migrant children were separated from local children’s regular activities, an invisible line was gradually drawn between the two groups of children.