Who Goes, Who Stays, and Who Studies? Gender, Migration, and Educational Decisions among Rural Youth in China
In: International Journal of Chinese EducationSearch for other papers by Yilin Chiang in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Emily Hannum in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Grace Kao in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Little is known about what affects the decision to migrate in China, despite the estimated 145 million rural migrants that reside in urban areas as of 2009. Drawing on a survey of youth from 100 villages in Gansu Province, we analyze migration and education decisions, with a focus on disparities associated with gender, sibship structure, and academic performance. Results show modest gender differences favoring boys in educational migration, but no gender differences in the overall likelihood of labor migration. Youth with older sisters are less likely to migrate, while youth with younger brothers are more likely to migrate. For girls, having older sisters is also negatively related to being a local or a migrant student, and better early academic performance is related to educational migration. For boys, labor migration may serve as a backup plan in the event of failing the high school entrance examination. Overall, results shed more light on the factors shaping educational migration than labor migration.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Brown Philip H. & Park Albert “Education and Poverty in Rural China.” Economics of Education Review 2002 vol. 21 no. 6 523 541
-
Chan Kam Wing “Urbanization and Rural-Urban Migration in China Since 1982: A New Baseline.” Modern China 1994 vol. 20 no. 3 243 281
-
Cherng Hua-Yu & Sebastian Emily Hannum “Gender and Access to Education in Rural China: Old Stories and New Developments.” 2011 Roundtable discussion in the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, Aug. 2011.
-
Cicirelli Victor G. “Sibling Relationships in Cross-Cultural Perspective.” Journal of Marriage and Family 1994 vol. 56 no. 1 7 20
-
Cong Zhen & Silverstein Merril “Intergenerational Exchange Between Parents and Migrant and Nonmigrant Sons in Rural China.” Journal of Marriage and Family 2011 vol. 73 no. 1 93 104
-
De Brauw Alan & Giles John “Migrant Opportunity and the Educational Attainment of Youth in Rural China.” 2008 Working Paper Series 45526, Policy Working Paper, The World Bank.
-
De Brauw Alan & Rozelle Scott Hannum Emily & Park Albert “Returns to Education in Rural China.” Education and Reform in China 2007 London and New York Routledge
-
Fan C. Cindy “Migration in a Socialist Transitional Economy: Heterogeneity, Socioeconomic and Spatial Characteristics of Migrants in China and Guangdong Province.” International Migration Review 1999 vol. 33 no. 4 954 987
-
Fan C. Cindy & Huang Youqin “Waves of Rural Brides: Female Marriage Migration in China.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 1998 vol. 88 no. 2 227 251
-
Jacka Tamera Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration and Social Change 2006 Armonk, NY M. E. Sharpe
-
Hannum Emily “Political Change and the Urban-Rural Gap in Education in China, 1949-1990.” Comparative Education Review 1999 vol. 43 no. 2 193 211
-
Hannum Emily “Market Transition, Educational Disparities, and Family Strategies in Rural China: New Evidence on Gender Stratification and Development.” Demography 2005 vol. 42 no. 2 275 299
-
Hannum Emily & Adams Jennifer Davis Deborah & Wang Feng “Beyond Cost: Rural Perspectives on Barriers to Education.” Creating Wealth and Poverty in Postsocialist China: Studies in Social Inequality 2008 Standford, CA Stanford University Press
-
Hannum Emily, Wang Meiyan & Adams Jennifer King Whyte Martin “Rural-Urban Disparities in Access to Primary and Secondary Education under Market Reforms.” One Country, Two Societies: Rural-Urban Inequality in Contemporary China 2010 Cambridge, MA Harvard University Press
-
Hannum Emily, Kong Peggy & Zhang Yuping “Family Sources of Educational Gender Inequality in Rural China: A Critical Assessment.” International Journal of Educational Development 2009 vol. 29 no. 5 474 486
-
Hannum Emily & Xie Yu “Trends in Educational Gender Inequality in China: 1949-1985.” Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 1994 vol. 13 73 98
-
He Canfei & Gober Patricia “Gendering Interprovincial Migration in China.” International Migration Review 2003 vol. 37 no. 3 1220 1251
-
Jacka Tamera Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration and Social Change 2006 Armonk, NY M. E. Sharpe
-
Kandel William & Kao Grace “The Impact of Temporary Labor Migration on Mexican Children’s Educational Aspirations and Performance. International Migration Review 2001 vol. 35 no. 4 1205 1231
-
Karpestam Peter “Education, Migration and Source Community Income in Rural China.” 2011 No. 2011: 2, working papers, Lund University. http://econpapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs: lunewp:2011_002, retrieved 2011/11/12.
-
Kong Peggy A. “‘To Walk Out’: Rural Parents’ Views on Education.” 2010 Gansu Survey of Children and Families Papers, http://repository.upenn.edu/gansu_papers/28 retrieved 2011/11/18.
-
Lee Ching Kwan Gender and the South China Miracle 1998 Berkeley, CA University of California Press
-
Li Cheng “Rural Laborers and Internal Migration in China: Current Status and Future Prospects.” Asian Survey 1996 vol. 36 no. 11 1122 1145
-
Li Ling “Migration, Urbanization and Urban Planning in Guangdong Province.” 1994 Guangzhou Center for Urban and Regional Studies, Zhongshan University Working Paper no. 8.
-
Li Hongbin, Zhang Junsen & Zhu Yi “The Quantity-Quality Trade-Off of Children in a Developing Country: Identification Using Chinese Twins.” Demography 2008 vol. 45 no. 1 223 243
-
Liang Zai & Chen YiuPor “Migration and Gender in China: An Origin-Destination Linked Approach.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 2004 vol. 52 no. 2 423 443
-
Liang Zai & White Michael J. “Internal Migration in China, 1950-1988.” Demography 1996 vol. 33 no. 3 375 384
-
Ma Lang & Jacobs Francine “Poor but Not Powerless: Women Workers in Production Chain Factories in China.” Journal of Adolescent Research 2010 vol. 25 no. 6 807 838
-
McHale Susan M. & Crouter Ann C. Booth Alan et al. “Families as Nonshared Environments for Siblings.” Intergenerational Caregiving 2008 Washington, D.C. The Urban Institute Press
-
National Bureau of Statistics of China “新生代農民工的數量、結構和特點.” 2011 3 11 http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjfx/fxbg/t20110310_402710032.htm retrieved 2011/10/30.
-
Oakes Jeannie Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality 1985 New Haven, CT Yale University Press
-
Otis Eileen “Beyond the Industrial Paradigm: Market-Embedded Labor and the Gender Organization of Global Service Work in China.” American Sociological Review 2008 vol. 73 no. 1 15 36
-
Park Albert & Wang Dewen “Migration and Urban Poverty and Inequality in China.” China Economic Journal 2010 vol. 3 no. 1 49 67
-
Pun Ngai Made in China: Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace 2005 Durham, NC Duke University Press
-
Qian Wenbao Rural-Urban Migration and its Impact on Economic Development in China 1996 Brookfield, VT Ashgate Publishing
-
Song Yu, Zheng Jianmin & Qian Wenrong “To Be, or Not to Be: Rural Women’s Migration Decisions.” The Chinese Economy 2009 vol. 42 no. 4 63 74
-
Taylor J. Edward, Rozelle Scott & Brauw Alan de “Migration and Income in Source Communities: A New Economics of Migration Perspective from China.” Economic Development and Cultural Change 2003 vol. 52 no. 1 75 101
-
Wu Harry Xiaoying “Rural to Urban Migration in the People’s Republic of China.” The China Quarterly 1994 vol. 139 no. 2 669 698
-
Wu Xiaogang & Zhang Zhuoni “Changes in Educational Inequality in China, 1990–2005: Evidence from the Population Census Data.” Research in the Sociology of Education (Special Issue on Globalization, Changing Demographics, and Educational Challenges in East Asia) 2010 vol. 17 123 152
-
Yu Wei-hsin & Su Kuo-hsien “Gender, Sibship Structure, and Educational Inequality in Taiwan: Son Preference Revisited.” Journal of Marriage and Family 2006 vol. 68 no. 4 1057 1068
-
Zhang Heather Ziaoquan “Female Migration and Urban Labour Markets in Tianjin.” Development and Change 1999 vol. 30 no. 1 21 41
-
Zhang Junsen & Zhao Yaohui Hannum Emily & Park Albert “Rising Schooling Returns in Urban China.” Education and Reform in China 2007 London and New York Routledge
-
Zhang Yuping, Kao Grace & Hannum Emily “Do Mothers in Rural China Practice Gender Equity in Educational Aspirations for Children?” Comparative Education Review 2007 vol. 51 no. 2 131 158
-
Zhao Yaohui “Leaving the countryside: Rural-to-Urban Migration Decisions in China.” American Economic Review 1999 vol. 89 no. 2 281 286
-
Zhu Nong & Luo Xubei “The Impact of Migration on Rural Poverty and Inequality: A Case Study in China.” Agricultural Economics 2010 vol. 41 no. 2 191 204
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 987 | 213 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 164 | 17 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 146 | 35 | 2 |
Who Goes, Who Stays, and Who Studies? Gender, Migration, and Educational Decisions among Rural Youth in China
In: International Journal of Chinese EducationSearch for other papers by Yilin Chiang in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Emily Hannum in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Grace Kao in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Little is known about what affects the decision to migrate in China, despite the estimated 145 million rural migrants that reside in urban areas as of 2009. Drawing on a survey of youth from 100 villages in Gansu Province, we analyze migration and education decisions, with a focus on disparities associated with gender, sibship structure, and academic performance. Results show modest gender differences favoring boys in educational migration, but no gender differences in the overall likelihood of labor migration. Youth with older sisters are less likely to migrate, while youth with younger brothers are more likely to migrate. For girls, having older sisters is also negatively related to being a local or a migrant student, and better early academic performance is related to educational migration. For boys, labor migration may serve as a backup plan in the event of failing the high school entrance examination. Overall, results shed more light on the factors shaping educational migration than labor migration.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 987 | 213 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 164 | 17 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 146 | 35 | 2 |
