Two Decades of Basic Education in Rural China

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7.2.2 The Impact of Inward Migration

The case study of Tongzhou district provides an example of a migrant child inflow
area that has changed dramatically over the last two decades. The predominantly
agricultural area with some light industry has been transformed. There are now tens
of modern hi-tech enterprises in a nearby economic development zone—Yizhuang.
The local economy has attracted over 100,000 migrant worker while the local resi-
dential population is only 40,000. These migrant worker’s children are the major
part of Majuqiao primary schools’ enrollment. In the 1990s there were almost no
migrant children in the schools. In the last decade the proportion of migrant chil-
dren in all primary schools has risen from below 15 % to over 30 % and has been
concentrated in the Central Primary school which now has 50 % migrant children.
Lower grades have more migrant children suggesting the trend is continuing.
Compared with Majuqiao, the relatively undeveloped Xiji town hosts fewer
migrant children. However recent developments have included a fruit trees planta-
tion which uses migrant labour and around 3000 people and 200 children moved
to the town to work on the enterprise. The impact on the schools system has meant
that the proportion of migrant children has risen from only 5 % to over 30 % over
the last decade.
It remains difficult for migrant children to enroll at secondary level in
Tongzhou because of residency issues and because children wishing to apply to
university are generally expected to do so from their home town, not from where
they have migrated. Beijing government regulations require that migrant students
can only be enrolled by the technical secondary school rather than in the general

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Fig. 7.3 The percentage of migrant children (cities) amongst all children in cities of each province

7.2 Migrant Children in Urban Areas