Chinese Migrant Children in Crisis

Abstract

With the increasing population of Chinese migrant children in China and the call for addressing educational equity and revising education goals on behalf of the whole child, research indicates that those children experience various challenges regarding their education and well-being including unequal access to education, low quality of education, discrimination, social anxiety, and depression. Thus, this article explores institutional-, school-, and family-level factors to understand how migration might create threats for Chinese migrant children. It is believed that government, community, school, and family have unintentionally formed an intertwined and complex dynamic where the development and education of migrant children is compromised. It is the authors’ hope to raise awareness to the academic and practical arenas of both the educational plight and living conditions of Chinese migrant children.