Growing up in (and out of) Shenzhen: the longer-term impacts of rural-urban migration on education and labour market entry

TY - JOUR

T1 - Growing up in (and out of) Shenzhen

T2 - the longer-term impacts of rural-urban migration on education and labour market entry

AU - Goodburn, Charlotte

PY - 2020/1

Y1 - 2020/1

N2 - Extensive research has shown that rural-to-urban migrant children in China face significant barriers to an urban public primary-school education, and often end up in poor quality, migrant-run private schools. However, much less is known about what happens after children leave junior high school. This article therefore draws on two rounds of interviews with migrant children educated in Shenzhen, in 2008-09 and then in 2015-16, to examine in detail their experiences of schooling and labour-market entry. It identifies four distinct pathways of education – state vocational school, private migrant secondary school, state academic high school, or return to the countryside for further schooling – and suggests that these educational routes all ultimately lead to the same end point: regardless of pathway, aptitude, financial investment in education, or earlier career aspirations, migrant youths are channelled into low-skilled urban service work. This is in marked contrast to the hopes of parents that their child will achieve upward mobility through investing in education. This article analyses the multiple reasons for the depressing uniformity of outcomes, and the crucial role of state policy at both central and local levels in perpetuating migrant disadvantage.

AB - Extensive research has shown that rural-to-urban migrant children in China face significant barriers to an urban public primary-school education, and often end up in poor quality, migrant-run private schools. However, much less is known about what happens after children leave junior high school. This article therefore draws on two rounds of interviews with migrant children educated in Shenzhen, in 2008-09 and then in 2015-16, to examine in detail their experiences of schooling and labour-market entry. It identifies four distinct pathways of education – state vocational school, private migrant secondary school, state academic high school, or return to the countryside for further schooling – and suggests that these educational routes all ultimately lead to the same end point: regardless of pathway, aptitude, financial investment in education, or earlier career aspirations, migrant youths are channelled into low-skilled urban service work. This is in marked contrast to the hopes of parents that their child will achieve upward mobility through investing in education. This article analyses the multiple reasons for the depressing uniformity of outcomes, and the crucial role of state policy at both central and local levels in perpetuating migrant disadvantage.

KW - China

KW - Migration

KW - Education

KW - Youth

KW - Children

KW - Urban

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074331971&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1086/705540

DO - 10.1086/705540

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85074331971

SN - 1324-9347

VL - 83

SP - 129

EP - 147

JO - CHINA JOURNAL

JF - CHINA JOURNAL

IS - 1

ER -