From lost identity to identity grafting: The second generation migrant workers in Beijing

Abstract

The first two decades of twenty-first century witnessed growing academic enthusiasm over rural migrant families and their children in China. Unlike those who moved to the cities alone in the early stage of migration, nowadays more and more migrants tend to bring their families and children on the move. Recent research unveils the tendency of these migrant families to settle in a destination city permanently. On the one hand, living with their parents contributes to the general well-being of these migrant children, but on the other hand, once they are settled in the city, the challenging courses of navigating host and origin contexts and negotiating rural and urban identities befall them. However, how these children construct their identity against the urban backdrop remains largely a myth. This study, based on 6 months of fieldwork at a vocational secondary school in Beijing, is a memoir of twelve migrant girls constructing a new pro-urban identity in the city. Adopting qualitative and ethnographic approaches, through the theoretical lens of identity grafting, this study addresses how these migrant girls navigate rural and urban cultures and interact with other parties involved in heir daily lives against the urban background, and how they graft their new identity.