EDUCATION GAP CHINA

Closing the education gap between migrant and urban children in China

Abstract

Rural migrants have suffered from serious social exclusion in the Chinese urban society. This paper aims to explore the effects of current government policies for rural migrants that are aimed at enhancing social harmony.

Education Gap China

Introduction

China has devoted itself to promoting economic growth, gaining tremendous successes in the past 30 years. However, accompanying such rapid economic growth is the evident rise in social problems. In the early 2000s, the Chinese government has redefined its developmental goals and strategies, one of which is placing more emphasis on social harmony while continuing its efforts to promote economic growth (Guo, 2009). By "social harmony," the State claims to solve problems concerning people's basic interests, enabling them to enjoy the fruits of reform and development more equally, as well as to gain from a strengthened democracy and legal system. The "people first" approach, social equality, social stability, and social cohesion are underlined as the key principles and goals (Hong, 2007).

With this shift in developmental goals, the State has reformulated its social policies, including its policies towards rural-urban migrants. Rural-urban migrants, a major driving force in China's economic prosperity, constitute a huge social group in contemporary China. By the mid-2000s, nearly 120 million rural laborers (more than 20% of the total rural labor force) moved to the urban areas to seek employment opportunities (The Drafting Group of the Report of Rural-Urban Migrant Workers, 2006, p.4). However, rural migrants have experienced severe social exclusion in urban China; this is counterproductive to social harmony. This paper will firstly review the different forms of discrimination against rural migrants in the 1980s and 1990s. Then, it focuses on the new policies for rural migrants beginning the early 2000s, and examines the results of policy implementation to gauge whether such policies had enhanced the rural migrants' rights and interests. Next, the action of rural migrants is elaborated. Based on this examination, this paper finally discusses whether the policy changes since the early 2000s have enhanced social harmony and social inclusion.

Rural and migrant presence in China

Rural-urban migration gained momentum in China in the mid-1980s. The government implemented a series of policies to adapt to this new phenomenon, but its policies have been heavily constrained by an institutional legacy from the planned economy, namely, the hukou system (i.e., household registration).

This system segregated rural populations from urban residents, granting different state welfare entitlements between the two. Generally, urban residents were provided a wide range of social services and welfare, while rural residents largely had to fend for themselves. Under this system, to avoid any negative impacts to the urban society, rural laborers were allowed to work in cities in the 1980s and 1990s. However, they were not permitted to transfer their hukou and, consequently, had no social entitlements in their host city. In addition to their limited social rights, rural-urban migrants did not have equal political rights with local urban residents. In China, people's political rights, such as the right of ...