Abstract
With the rapid development of urbanization in China, a growing number of rural workers migrate to urban cities for employment opportunities with leaving their children at home. These children are called left behind children (LBC) in China and their population has dramatically increased during the last 20 years. So far, many studies have examined what factors were associated with this increasing LBC populations. However, they were rarely guided by a holistic perspective. The current study investigated 1,691 left behind children in 166 communities using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) in 2011. Based on the human ecology theory, this study explored family and contextual (community) characteristics associated with the left behind children (LBC) in China. The main results for this subpopulation of families with children revealed stark contrasts with the literature for the general population of migrants. That is, for the families with children, (1) contrary to the literature, father’s education was negatively associated with the probability of LBC at the individual level, even after the income was controlled; (2) community average father’s education was also negatively associated with LBC; but (3) community average household income was not associated with LBC once the average father’s education was controlled. The policy implications of these results are briefly discussed.
Highlights
1.1 Migrant Workers & Left Behind Children in ChinaThe story, “Made in China” during the last quarter century was greatly contributed by the migrant workers toiling for substantial wages to produce exports (Chan, 2013)
As for the father‟s educational attainment, we considered that father‟s educational attainment might play an important role on the family immigration decision because many rural families in China were still highly influenced by the patriarchal family culture
The current study used the multilevel logistic regression model to explore what factors could predict the status of left behind children (LBC) in China using the 2011 China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data
Summary
The story, “Made in China” during the last quarter century was greatly contributed by the migrant workers toiling for substantial wages to produce exports (Chan, 2013). “rural migrant labor”, was estimated to be 16.5% of total population in 2010, and has been the backbone of China‟s export industry since the mid-1990s (Ye & Lu, 2011). In coastal cities such as Shengzhen and Dongguan, the migrant population contributes to a majority of labor force (70% to 80%) in the local industrial market. The rural-urban migration has played a crucial role in China‟s epic urbanization within the last 20 years. In the 30 years since 1979, China‟s urban population has grown by about 440 million to 622 million in 2009 (Chan, 2013). Around 340 million could be attributable to the net migration (Ebenstein & Zhao, 2015)
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