Immediate Context, Life Experiences, and Perception: How Do Rural Migrants in Urban China Perceive an Unfair Policy?

Abstract:

This article examines how rural migrants in China perceive a policy that deprives their children of the opportunity for a high school or college education. In-depth interviews with migrant families in Shanghai reveal that many remain unconvinced that the future of their children is strongly affected by this policy. Rather, they devalue the importance of formal education and emphasize individual effort and alternative pathways to success. By drawing on theories of cognition and the sociology of understanding, I argue that their perceptions of this policy are formed through three processes of validation: recognition of certain views by authorities such as school teachers, social workers, and the media; corroboration with the daily experiences of living in a modern city; and resonance with past experience. This study asserts the importance of immediate context and overall everyday life experiences in shaping perception toward policies. This case also provides insight as to how structural oppression that situates certain individuals in disadvantaged positions is subtly achieved through mechanisms at the microlevel.

Acknowledgments

Cheris Shun Ching Chan and Gary Hamilton have provided helpful advice on an earlier version of this paper. I also thank Xiaoyan Han and Bill Yuk-Piu Tsang for their invaluable help with the data collection.

About the Author

Xiaoli Tian is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include how preexisting knowledge paradigms and cultural norms influence the way people respond to the unexpected transformations of their everyday routines. This interest is reflected in her two main lines of research: cross-cultural transmission of medical knowledge and social interaction. Her writings have been published in the American Journal of Sociology, Modern China, Information, Communication, and Society, and the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Media, Culture, and Society, to name a few.

Notes

Migrant children: children of migrant workers (0–18 years old) who have relocated to a city to live with one or both of their parents.

The curriculums are different. Knowledge from urban schools does not transfer well to the continuing education in their hometown.

For example, Professor Zhang Qianfan at Peking University has been actively advocating for the educational rights of migrant children. See Pan Xutao and Feng Shuangqing, “Professor Zhang Qianfan scored zero for the policy on non-local students’ college entrance exams in Beijing” nandu.com, last modified December 20, 2012. http://news.nandu.com/html/201301/10/15282.html.

In 2014 the college enrollment rate (一本录取率, yi ben lu qu lv) in Beijing and Shanghai was 24.87 percent and 21.92 percent, respectively, compared to11.38 percent in Anhui and 9.38 percent in Jiangsu. Data source: http://edu.people.com.cn/n/2015/0709/c367001-27279464.html.

Since 2012 the Ministry of Education of China requires all provinces to issue policies on post-middle school education for migrant students. Shanghai publicized its regulations in 2012; however, they were based on the same point system for hukou permits.

At the time of this research (2006–8), resistance was an extremely rare phenomenon. However, since March 2010, some of the parents in large cities began to organize activities to demand the right for their children to participate in college entrance exams, and since July 2010, some have petitioned to the Ministry of Education every month to appeal the restrictions of hukou.

In 2012 Zhan Haite, a 15-year-old migrant student in Shanghai, openly protested against hukou on her page in Weibo (a micro-blogging site, the Chinese version of Twitter) after she was not allowed to take the high school entrance examination. This is the only protest that attracted national attention. The responses to her case were mixed: while some praised her courage, many others accused her of being naïve or unreasonable. Both Zhan and her father were strictly controlled by authorities and were not allowed to take further actions of protests. (See reports http://news.163.com/12/1201/15/8HLB69Q500011229.html#from=relevant.).

In the past decade, higher education has been considered an investment with low or even negative return rates, a popular view among rural families and one that is circulated in the media.

There is much empirical evidence that suggests education is one of the most important factors in determining life chances in post-reform China. See, for example, Jansen and Wu (2012: 19).

Since migrant students are not allowed to attend high school in Shanghai, many become loafers after middle school and account for the majority of youth crime. See Xiong (2015: 5–6).

A survey also found that second generation migrant workers are more likely to self-compare with urbanites. See National Statistical Bureau, 2011, “The Number, Composition, and Characteristics of the New Generation of Migrant Workers.” Available at http://www.stats.gov.cn/ztjc/ztfx/fxbg/201103/t20110310_16148.html.