Getting ready ahead: socioeconomic status and parenting strategies among Chinese adolescents with emigration intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACT Selective migration is traditionally acknowledged as an important mechanism explaining the educational and socioeconomic attainment of immigrants. However, most existing studies employing data in destination countries provide an inaccurate image of the selected features of immigrants. Values and norms often attributed to immigrants, such as high educational expectations, may be shaped by experiences during pre-emigration, rather than originate from distinct cultural values or the immigration experience itself. With data from Chinese Education Panel Study (CEPS), this study finds that parenting styles for adolescents intending to emigrate are different in both family norms and parental involvement compared to those with no intention to emigrate. Adolescents with emigration intentions are also positively selected on familial income, parental education, and mothers’ occupational status, but negatively selected on fathers’ occupational status. This study identifies a number of other demographic factors that are associated with emigration intentions in the Chinese contexts. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive knowledge of selective migration among Chinese adolescents who potentially emigrate and suggest that distinctive norms and values of emigrants could be shaped by parenting strategies in the early planning stage of emigration.