Social Reproduction Education and Children Migrants in China

Social Reproduction Education and Children Migrants in China
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November 13, 2022
Understanding the close relationship between social policies and circumstances in line with societal realities is essential for every policymaker. It allows us to have a critical insight into the things that are happening on the ground and implement changes that address the deeply rooted inequalities and injustices about the same. In this article, the author would like to discuss the various inequalities faced by migrant children in China in terms of access to affordable and quality education, social discrimination, and improvement in terms of social mobility. This is in line with the harsh reality faced by Chinese citizen immigrants who are reported to have been discriminated against, thereby reducing their access to quality education and, ultimately, the opportunity for social mobility.
This analysis would be based on the three articles that studied the phenomena, which focused on the same subject matter with slight variations in focus, contents, and approach. The three readings provided cover the key topics that are connected to the immigrants' educational backgrounds who live in rural and peri-urban areas. Going deeper into the synthesis, the three readings' primary concerns are with migrant students' education and welfare as they live and interact in the city. Also targeted is the issue of how society treats pupils, mainly how they are treated at school. They are not treated like regular citizens of the nation and are subject to some form of discrimination. As the name implies, "social Replication" refers to the reproduction of societal standards in all facets of social conduct, including education, inheritance, and legal titles such as houses and other properties. This is one of the words that frequently recurs across the three readings. Similar to how people reproduce biologically, people reproduce in society as laborers that come and go over time. When viewed from a broad perspective, education, gender, and religion can all be reproductive if they apply the same behaviors to the next generation in order to produce the same treatment, beliefs, and attitudes.
All in all, it is the author's belief that looking into this issue of deeply-rooted marginal inequality would not only add to the pool of knowledge regarding this topic but would also help in the development of policies and approaches that could tackle these symbolic differentiations and actual inequities in a deeper level.
Discussion Between the Authors' Findings
As stated earlier, the main focus of all authors cited in this paper is similar in context and nature - that is, migrant children who are living in Beijing. Nonetheless, despite the differences in their approach and focus, all of the authors have clearly and sufficiently established that there is a lingering discriminatory policy that affects the educational access of migrant children in Beijing. All of these authors have studied both these discriminatory policies and the resilient approach of the migrant students (and their families), which will be discussed in the succeeding sections.
State-led Discrimination
One of the common and recurring themes, which was highly evidenced and stated by the three authors, was the presence of state-led discrimination against Chinese migrant individuals. For example, Wang's (2008) study has cited previous reports that State that "about 47% of migrant children in Beijing and that only 34% in Xiamen are now in public schools". According to him, this gap which is caused by the lack of state funding is primarily due to the "state's failure to deliver educational services to [migrant] children" (Wang, 2008), which causes both issues and benefits such as increasing social stratification and the demand for private schooling, respectively.
In contrast to Wang's analysis, Ling (2015) noted that this social reproduction was strongly manifested and established by the State's restrictive policies rather than the conscious efforts of each group. For example, the issue regarding the failure to deliver schooling opportunities to migrant children is not merely because of the government's incapacity but rather because of the State's conscious effort. In her conclusion, she expressly and clearly identified the results of her findings, which suggests that the modification in the Chinese hukou system is because of the State's desire to intensify its human capital (i.e., labor workforce), which is achieved by channeling students to vocational schools rather than Universities. Thus, migrant students are not preferred for subsidies in line with the government's "to foster a new generation of migrant laborers much needed for the manufacturing and service industries" (Ling, 2015).
Accordingly, the conclusions made by Koo (2012) were in line with and similar to Wang and Ling, but with a focus on the underlying influences of the State's discriminatory policies. Notably, the author noted that state-led discrimination has caused migrant children and their families to lower their expectations even before they enter college. The author found this by asking the families and their children about the highest educational attainment they believe they could obtain based on their perception of reality. Unsurprisingly, the results of his study have shown that the state policies have cascaded and created various questions in the migrants' minds, such as 'what their future would be, 'how they would address their uncertainty, and 'how can they finance their education. Note how similar and complementary these questions are to the previous findings of Wang and Ling, especially when it comes to the conclusion that state-led discrimination pushes migrant children towards becoming human capital by giving them a lack (or no) options for social mobility.
Discussions of Findings and Reliability
As stated earlier, although the three pieces discuss the same subject, their focus and objectives differ because they approach the subject from different angles. This is also the reason why each article has its own limits when it comes to its analysis. Nonetheless, as would be established in the latter sections of this article, the three articles also help complement the limitations set by each of the studies. Thus, in the succeeding paragraphs, the author will ...