There are an estimated 110 million migrant workers in China aged between 16 and 40 years old. They left home in the hope of building a better life for themselves and their family, yet when they start a family of their own, they are faced with a stark choice; either take their children to the cities and subject them to institutionalized discrimination, or leave them behind in the countryside in the uncertain care of relatives.
Recent research has shown that the number of children left behind is about 58 million, three times higher than previously estimated. Moreover, compared with other children, those left behind are more likely to be victims of crime, and a significantly higher proportion suffers from psychological and behavioral problems caused by long-term separation from their parents.
In the cities, the children of migrant workers usually attend sub-standard schools and illegal clinics because of their “inferior” status and low household income. As their parents have to work excessively long hours in arduous jobs leaving little or no time for their families, migrant children in cities consequently develop psychological problems disturbingly similar to those left behind.
The central government in Beijing began to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem in the early 2000s and introduced a wide range of directives and initiatives to deal with it. Many of these initiatives could have been effective if they had been implemented in full. However many efforts were stymied at the local level. Rural governments could not afford better schools, healthcare and social welfare services, while better resourced urban governments were extremely reluctant to give migrants and their children full and unfettered access to their services.
The only long-term solution is wide-ranging and systemic reform of the social welfare system and the abolition of China’s antiquated and discriminatory household registration (hukou 戶口) system. In the interim, CLB argues, the link between hukou and social services for children should be eliminated and urban governments should be made wholly responsible for the provision of social welfare to migrant children.
