Migrant Children Research Articles

Intergenerationally tied relocation and care circulation: Motivations, struggles, and future arrangements

AbstractObjectiveThis study investigates the processes and experiences of intergenerationally tied relocation in which older parents from mainland China join their already migrated children in Hong Kong to provide domestic and childcare support.BackgroundStudies on tied migration have mainly focused on couple‐based moves within a human capital framework. With the increasing trend of grandparenting migrants, studies have expanded to address intergenerationally tied relocation.MethodWe conducted thematic analysis of in‐depth interview data of 34 mainland Chinese respondents, including 15 parent–child pairs and four adult children.ResultsThe decision to relocate is influenced by the established history of intergenerational supportive exchange relationships. The initial motivation for tied relocation is to benefit the adult children. Older parents' postrelocation experiences can affect their later decision to leave or remain, with key factors including financial dependence, emotional stress, and difficulty in balancing the duty of care between migrant children and distant family members. In planning for future eldercare, the goal is to meet the needs of both generations. Options include non‐coresidential care, reliance on the parents' hometown sibling network, or living in nearby mainland cities closer to Hong Kong.ConclusionThe study highlights the complex interplay of family relationships and responsibilities in the phenomenon of intergenerationally tied relocation. The findings unveil the dynamic roles and adaptive strategies families utilize to facilitate the transfer of care and support across generations and geographies.ImplicationsPolicy and services should be developed to assist aging immigrant families in their adaptation and integration, and formulate strategies for meeting future care needs.

Did Migrant Children Benefit from a Delay in the Dutch Primary School Exit Test?

This paper evaluates whether educational outcomes of first-generation migrant children improved relative to those of natives after a policy change which delayed an important primary school exit test by three months. Using Dutch register data and a difference-in-differences methodology, we show that the policy change increased the academic rank of migrants relative to natives upon first enrollment. The policy change, therefore, has had an important positive effect on the educational chances of migrant children. Our analyses suggest that the results are driven by higher relative exit test scores and higher relative teacher recommendations.

Australian vaccine preventable disease epidemiological review series: Hepatitis B, 2000-2019.

Hepatitis B vaccination was nationally funded for adolescents in 1996, with inclusion of universal infant immunisation under the National Immunisation Program (NIP) in May 2000. This study describes hepatitis B epidemiology in Australia in the two decades since 2000. This article analyses newly-acquired (within the prior 24 months) and unspecified (all other) hepatitis B notifications (2000-2019) from the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System; acute hepatitis B hospitalisations (2001-2019) from the National Hospital Morbidity Database; and acute (2000-2019) and chronic (2006-2019) hepatitis B deaths from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Coordinating Registry. Rates over the reporting period were described overall, and by age group, sex, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander status (Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander versus other [neither Aboriginal nor Torres Strait Islander, unknown or not stated]). Trend analyses were performed using Poisson or negative binomial regression. Additional analyses were performed for the cohort born after May 2000. The annual all-age notification rate per 100,000 per year declined (p < 0.001) from 2.13 in 2000 to 0.65 in 2019 for newly-acquired hepatitis B and from 38.3 to 22.3 for unspecified hepatitis B (likely to predominantly represent chronic hepatitis B). Newly-acquired and unspecified hepatitis B notification rates were lowest among children aged < 15 years. The most substantial reductions in notification rates of newly-acquired hepatitis B were among adolescents aged 15-19 years and young adults aged 20-24 and 25-29 years (respectively 17-, 11-, and 7-fold); these age groups also recorded the most substantial reductions in unspecified hepatitis B notifications (respectively 5-, 3.5-, and 2-fold). Newly-acquired hepatitis B notification and acute hepatitis B mortality rates were two- to threefold higher in males than females. The all-age newly-acquired hepatitis B notification rate in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people decreased twofold between 2000 and 2019, but remained threefold higher than in other people. Acute hepatitis B hospitalisations also declined over the study period (p < 0.001) and followed similar patterns. There were no acute or chronic hepatitis B deaths among people born after May 2000; this cohort featured 52 newly-acquired and 887 unspecified hepatitis B notifications. Due to lack of data on country of birth (and hence eligibility for infant vaccination under the NIP or overseas programs), vaccination status and likely transmission routes, we were unable to assess factors contributing to these potentially preventable infections. Adolescent and infant immunisation under the NIP has led to significant reductions in notification rates of newly-acquired hepatitis B, and in acute hepatitis B hospitalisation rates, both overall and in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Unspecified hepatitis B notification rates have also greatly decreased in children and young adults, likely largely due to the impact of overseas infant immunisation programs on prevalence in child and adolescent migrants. Work to improve completeness of variables within national datasets is crucial, along with enhanced surveillance of both newly-acquired and unspecified hepatitis B cases to investigate transmission routes, vaccination status and factors contributing to acquisition of hepatitis B, in order to optimise the impact of immunisation programs and ensure linkage with care.

Right to education for children of Indonesian migrant workers living in plantations in Sabah – understanding the gaps

PurposeThe study aims to address the educations needs of Indonesian children living in plantations in Sabah and provide recommendations to the relevant stakeholders. Data was collected between January and March 2023 to identify and address the issues in relation to providing education for children living on plantations in Sabah. Specifically, children of Indonesian migrant workers.Design/methodology/approachThe research was both a doctrinal and qualitative study that encompassed in-depth interviews with migrant workers of Indonesian nationality who have children living with them in palm oil plantations in Sabah and local managers of the plantations. Data was collected from the commissioning plantation, where the children have yet to go to school and two other plantations with school-going children. The doctrinal component involved the analysis on international and domestic laws.FindingsThrough the research, ways of enrolling migrant children in schools were determined including within neighbouring plantations, impacting the lives of children residing in the commissioning estate.Research limitations/implicationsThe research was fraught with difficulties. Gaining the trust of palm oil plantation owners was key and this took some time. Time in essence was a limitation as time taken for interviews is time taken away from the migrant workers employment.Practical implicationsThe commissioning estate has already secured the provision of education for the children of the estate. The research is impactful as it has facilitated this development.Social implicationsThe hope is that more estates will allow for academic researchers to come in and provide systematic and constructive feedback on how things could be improved for children living in plantations.Originality/valueGaining trust and garnering data not only from migrant workers but also the managers provide novelty in the research. The views of the management side of things have not always been successfully acquired in the past.

Victimization, polyvictimization, and depression symptoms among immigrants and native children and youth in Chile

BackgroundMigration exposes children and youth to vulnerabilities, including uprooting, lack of protection, limited access to services, and violence. Previous studies have shown that victimization experiences impact the mental health of migrant children, including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. This study aims to examine the co-occurrence of multiple forms of maltreatment (polyvictimization) among migrant and Chilean children and youth and its association with depressive symptoms, addressing a research gap in Latin America.MethodsSecondary data from the National Polyvictimization Survey (NPS) conducted by the Chilean Ministry of the Interior were analyzed. Measures assessing polyvictimization and depressive symptoms were administered to a sample of 1362 participants, with equal group sizes for migrants and Chilean-born individuals. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, group comparisons, correlation analyses, and multiple regression analyses.ResultsThe study revealed marked differences in experiences of conventional crime victimization and polyvictimization between migrant and Chilean-born participants, with migrants facing slightly higher incidences. Correlational analysis indicated variable strengths of association between victimization types and depressive symptoms across groups, with Chilean-born individuals showing stronger correlations for certain victimization forms. Multiple regression analysis highlighted gender, polyvictimization, child maltreatment, internet victimization, sexual victimization, and peer/sibling victimization as significant predictors of depressive symptoms across the sample. Notably, an interaction was observed between child maltreatment and migrant status, indicating a mitigated impact of maltreatment on depressive symptoms among migrant adolescents. This suggests the potential for unique resilience or coping mechanisms in this group.ConclusionsThis study elucidates the varied victimization experiences of migrant children and youth in Chile, with a notable emphasis on the mitigating effect of migrant status on the relationship between child maltreatment and depressive symptoms. It highlights the resilience and potential adaptive strategies of migrant minors facing adversity. The findings underscore the necessity of developing support and intervention strategies that recognize the specific needs and strengths of migrant children and youth, advocating for policies that protect and empower this vulnerable demographic amidst new environmental challenges.

Heterogeneous effects of return migration on children's mental health and cognitive outcomes

As a neglected group, the number of return migrant children is growing with China's monumental volume of labor migration. Using data from 2013 to 2014 China Education Panel Survey, this study examines heterogeneous effects of return migration on children's mental health and cognitive outcomes. Our results show that the effects of return migration on children vary with the propensity for return migration. More importantly, when children are at risk of return migration, even if that risk is small, it already has a negative impact on children's mental health, which reminds us that it needs to take a dynamic view to study the impact of return migration on children. However, the impact of return migration is not all negative, and the findings suggest that return migration can promote the cognitive development of urban-origin migrant children. A striking regional difference emerges from our analysis: due to urban-rural gap, the impact of return migration on children from urban and rural areas is different. Specifically, return migration has a positive effect on the cognitive development of urban-origin migrant children while return migration does some harm to that of rural-origin migrant children, which implies that return migration may widen the gap between urban and rural children.

Remember these are children: unaccompanied migrant children in detention.

Remember these are children: unaccompanied migrant children in detention.

Causes of child labor and working conditions in Ethiopia: evidence from temporary inter-rural child labor migrants from Sekela district

Child labor migration is a critical issue that has received limited attention from academic and policy domains in many developing countries. This article analysis the causes of child labor migration and working conditions at the destination of temporary inter-rural child labor migration from Sekela district, Northwest Ethiopia. Mixed research methods is employed. Quantitative data is collected from randomly selected 204 respondents engaged in child labor migration. Focus group discussion, informal conversational interviews, and observation are also undertaken to gather qualitative data. Most child labor migrants participate in child labor migration due to localized economic constraints, which are reflected through a desire to have modern goods and cloth, food scarcity, and resource degradation. Also, the expansion of commercial farms at destination areas directly or indirectly due to the globalized market indicates that migrant children’s local labor cannot be delinked from material realities created by both national and international economic policy. The income from child labor migration supports children and their households’ livelihood, though it is at the expense of children’s education as well as exposure to worse working conditions at their destination in terms of exploitation, underpayment, malnutrition, breaching of an agreement by employers, and harassment. Hence, to exploit the benefits and minimize the risks, balanced measures should be taken at the origin and destination. Education programs should be supportive in increasing food productivity and assisting households to diversify their means of income by allowing them to participate in non-farm activities. It is also essential to the establishment of support groups in migrant destination places and the expansion of labor inspectorates who continuously supervise the safety of child labor migrants.

Continuity in child mental health from preschool years to adolescence in parental migration contexts: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Thailand

Our analysis employed the life-course approach to examine whether and how mental health during the preschool stage could predict mental health during adolescence in the Thai context, where migration of parents is common. We used the longitudinal data set of the 2008 and 2021 Child Health and Migrant Parents (CHAMPSEA)-Thailand. The baseline survey of CHAMSEA-Thailand gathered data from 1030 households that met the eligibility criteria, each having a child within one of the two specified age ranges (aged 3–5 or 9–11). Our analysis used the baseline data of children aged 3 to 5 years old who were 16 to 18 years old in the subsequent survey (N = 404). In both surveys, the mental health of children was measured using the SDQ (total difficulties scores), a global standard tool for assessing children's mental health. Parental migration measured whether the parent(s) were international migrants when the child was 3 to 5 years old at the baseline. Results showed a significant, positive impact of the SDQ total difficulties scores of children aged 3 to 5 on their SDQ total difficulties scores when they grew up to 16 to 18 years old. Findings also revealed that experiencing parental international migration during the early life stage led to adverse effects on individuals' mental health when they became adolescents.

Constructing Identities in a Diverse School Setting: From Finnish Learners to Multilingual Experts

ABSTRACT This article investigates how Shanaya and Zona, two 11-year-old multilingual migrant children, construct identities as knowledgeable, multilingual, and socially aware experts in a comprehensive school in Finland. I use ethnographic data that includes school observation and interviews to show how they find moments for overcoming disadvantageous circumstances through identity construction, and thus empower themselves. This empowerment seems to happen in informal situations, implying that there is little space for being something other than Finnish or Finnish-speaking elsewhere in the school. This study describes the children’s lived experience holistically by showing how linguistic, ethnic, and social identity categories intertwine and manifest in language use. It adds to our knowledge of the empowerment of young migrant children in school-related discourses outside of the anglophone world and calls for acknowledging children’s voices in developing education globally.

Family migration and well-being of Chinese migrant workers’ children

This article aims to explore the effects of parental migration on the well-being of children and how to adjust social cognitive well-being through the interrelations among family relations and social cognitive well-being indicators using structural equation modelling. Two modified social cognitive well-being models were tested in 1682 Chinese migrant workers' children to examine the pathways among social cognitive well-being and family relation characteristics. The modified models are based on the social cognitive well-being model and the characteristics of Chinese migrant workers' children. The results show that caregiver-child communication frequency, caregiver-child regulation, caregiver-child conflicts, caregiver-child trust and communication, and coactivity positively impact children’s social cognitive well-being. In contrast, caregiver-child alienation negatively influences children’s social cognitive factors through caregiver-child trust and communication. Additionally, this research revealed that family-related characteristics (caregiver-child regulation, caregiver-child coactivities, caregiver-child communication frequency, caregiver-child alienation, caregiver-child conflicts, and caregiver-child trust and communication) are interconnected with social cognitive well-being indicators (academic satisfaction, outcome expectations, goal progress, lifelong satisfaction, environmental support, positive affect, negative affect, and self-efficacy). This suggests that family migration and relationships with caregiver(s) can significantly affect the well-being of migrant workers' children.

Migration health ethics in Southeast Asia: a scoping review

Background Asia hosts the second-largest international migrant population in the world. In Southeast Asia (SEA), key types of migration are labour migration, forced migration, and environmental migration. This scoping review seeks to identify key themes and gaps in current research on the ethics of healthcare for mobile and marginalised populations in SEA, and the ethics of research involving these populations. Methods We performed a scoping review using three broad concepts: population (stateless population, migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced people), issues (healthcare and ethics), and context (11 countries in SEA). Three databases (PubMed, CINAHL, and Web of Science) were searched from 2000 until May 2023 over a period of four months (February 2023 to May 2023). Other relevant publications were identified through citation searches, and six bioethics journals were hand searched. All searches were conducted in English, and relevant publications were screened against the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were subsequently imported into NVivo 14, and thematic analysis was conducted. Results We identified 18 papers with substantial bioethical analysis. Ethical concepts that guide the analysis were ‘capability, agency, dignity’, ‘vulnerability’, ‘precarity, complicity, and structural violence’ (n=7). Ethical issues were discussed from the perspective of research ethics (n=9), clinical ethics (n=1) and public health ethics (n=1). All publications are from researchers based in Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. Research gaps identified include the need for more research involving migrant children, research from migrant-sending countries, studies on quality of migrant healthcare, participatory health research, and research with internal migrants. Conclusions More empirical research is necessary to better understand the ethical issues that exist in the domains of research, clinical care, and public health. Critical examination of the interplay between migration, health and ethics with consideration of the diverse factors and contexts involved is crucial for the advancement of migration health ethics in SEA.

Swimming and water safety delivery for newly arrived Australians.

In Victoria, Australia, culturally and linguistically diverse communities are more than twice as likely to drown than their Australian-born counterparts. One explanation is the lack of feasible, community-led approaches to water safety and swimming education. A community engagement framework was used to develop and implement a 5-day pool program to teach swimming and water safety to newly arrived migrant children attending an English language school in Victoria. Socio-cultural needs of the predominantly Afghan cohort were incorporated through in-language consultation with parents who requested males and females be educated separately. Participants were assessed against Victorian aquatic competency benchmark standards at pre- and post-program, however, there was no expectation to achieve these competencies within the 5 days due to a lack of prior aquatic exposure. Independent and paired samples t-tests determined changes in skills, including by sex and number of lessons attended. Forty-one participants completed all assessments. Excluding lifesaving skills, there was a significant increase in total competency attainment overall from pre- to post-program (p < 0.001), and for each competency (p's ≤ 0.002)-predominantly knowledge and rescue skills. Improvements were mostly recorded among males, demonstrating that females may require more specialized support to achieve similar outcomes. Improvements in rescue skills and knowledge indicate the program's effectiveness in increasing newly arrived migrant children's awareness of, and exposure to, foundations of safe aquatic behaviours. Future programs tailored to newly arrived migrant communities should consider implementing water familiarization activities as a stepping stone to engagement with structured swimming and water safety education.

Peer effects of local students on the human capital of migrant children in middle schools: Evidence from China

The role of peer effects in children's human capital accumulation has attracted increased amounts of attention. Using data from a nationally representative survey of Chinese middle school students, this paper exploits random student-classroom assignment as a quasi-natural experiment to identify the peer effects of local students on the human capital of migrant children in Chinese middle schools. The results indicate that the peer effects of local students significantly improve the human capital of migrant children, including academic performance, cognitive abilities and non-cognitive abilities. Moreover, these peer effects can be further explained by improved parent-child relationships and parental expectations, increased student effort and expectations, and optimized teachers' teaching and school climate. Additionally, the peer effects from local students varies with migrant children's gender, Hukou, number of siblings and grade. Our research contributes to complementing the research field regarding peer effects and provides a new policy-oriented direction for the development of migrant children's human capital.

Supporting the educational integration of young people seeking asylum and refuge: examining good practices from Germany, Sweden and England

ABSTRACT The educational integration of Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee (NAMR) children and youth in a host country is complex. It requires educational systems responding to their diverse needs. Some of these needs are exacerbated by NAMR young people and their families’ limited understanding of the host country’s policies, structures, and procedures. Amidst these complexities, policy makers, practitioners, and other stakeholders strive for guidance in developing effective interventions that are transferable across different settings. This paper builds on the good practices that were identified and exchanged between seven partnering countries from Europe and the UK in 2017–18 as part of SIRIUS network’s RefuEdu project. Researchers, policymakers, and practitioners shared good practices that were grounded in their knowledge, experience, and examples. A set of core principles and individual sets of good practices are highlighted with action steps from the contexts of Germany, Sweden and England (UK). This may assist policy makers and practitioners in comprehending the challenges and opportunities within the educational integration of NAMR children and youth. The implications are for strengthening their holistic integration alongside positive educational experiences and advancing further research.

Reclaiming the Border Narrative: Refugee Children as Victim, Witness, and Agent in Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive

Valeria Luiselli’s 2019 novel Lost Children Archive records and reimagines visa-less migrant children’s encounters with hostile borders, while also challenging the logic and legality of border policy, a set of neocolonial practices that allows former colonial powers to continue their control over the mobility of bodies and epistemologies from the Global South. In an interview with The New Yorker about her novel, Luiselli commented on the role of narrative in conceptualizing and achieving justice when the law fails to deliver or denies justice: “Perhaps the only way to grant any justice—were that even possible—is by hearing and recording those stories over and over again so that they come back, always, to haunt and shame us.” 1 Luiselli thus highlights not only the power of storytelling in delivering justice otherwise denied, but also its ability to generate a moral, emotional, and intellectual response in its audience. This paper analyzes how Luiselli employs “factional” 2 narrative to “haunt and shame us,” question existing border policies, and grant authorial and narrative justice in the absence of institutional or legal justice through the extended metaphor of children on the move. I introduce the concept of “tripartite subjectivity” in analyzing how Luiselli’s factional children are, on the one hand, victims of and witnesses to the violence perpetrated by border laws, and, on the other hand, agents who challenge and reinterpret hostile borders, transforming the static border into a site of epistemic rupture. The tripartite subjectivity of Luiselli’s lost children provide a model via which characters who have been deprived of what Thomas Nail calls “socially determined status” (and thereby are rejected border access due to their inability to contribute to the state’s kinopolitical expansion) reclaim both fictional and epistemological borders through a reverse kinopolitics of what I term “bordered expansion by archive.”

Analyzing Media Coverage Trends on Undocumented Migrant Children in South Korea

Objectives: This study examined the impact of media coverage on the public perceptions of undocumented migrant children in South Korea, highlighting their societal exclusion due to their undocumented status. Thise research explores how media shapes the awareness of these vulnerable minors, which is crucial for both their development and societal progress.Methods: We analyzed 302 articles from BIGKinds, a news service of the Korea Press Foundation, published from 1990 to 2023. These articles contained terms related to ‘undocumented migrant children,’ totaling 69,278 keywords. The analysis was conducted using R 4.3.1 with packages such as wordcloud2 and ggplot2 to assess keyword frequency and trends over the decades.Results: From the analysis, 69,240 keywords were identified, with the most common being “children, arrest, parents, foreigner, illegal, resident, rights, protection, birth, offspring, support, school”. Media trends have evolved, with an overall increase in coverage, particularly during significant societal events.Conclusion: Media portrayals have shifted from viewing these children merely as dependents of foreign workers to recognizing them as individuals. Residency remained a persistent theme, highlighting it as an unresolved issue. This study highlights the critical role of the media in informing the public about marginalized individuals and influencing societal engagement and perceptions.

The Processes of Insertion and Sociability of Haitian Migrant Children in Early Childhood Education

The number of children, both accompanied and unaccompanied, currently crossing international borders in search of humanitarian refuge, has increased significantly in the last few decades of the Twenty-first Century. In Brazil, the presence of Haitian migrant children cannot be ignored, as, in addition to the lack of public policies, they are also victims of racism and xenophobia. Schools face a massive impact of migration, which alters their social structure. Often, the school community is not adequately prepared to cater for these children, as is the case with some schools in the Brazilian municipality of Balneário Camboriú. This research, which is linked to the Postgraduate Program in Education at the University of Vale do Itajaí, initially aims to investigate how Haitian migrant children interact with each other, and with Brazilian children, in two early childhood education schools in Balneário Camboriú. It also intends to investigate, based on the presence of Haitian migrant children, the processes of subjection or transgression of expressions of whiteness as a practice of power and representation of white identity, and to analyze the Municipality’s Curricular Proposal regarding Ethnic-Racial Education. The study is based on the Sociology of Childhood, Racial Studies, and Migration. The research is qualitative and is based on a literature review in two databases. The studies analyzed indicate that one reason for the lack of interest and knowledge about ethnic-racial diversity issues in schools is the existing gap in this theme in both initial and continuing teacher education.

Conceptualising “the more-than-migrant child”

PurposeUsing a feminist, post-structural and posthuman theoretical framing the paper argues for elevating the complexity of conceptions of migrant children’s engagements with and contributions to their own lives.Design/methodology/approachThis conceptual paper responds to contemporary concerns with research involving migrant children and childhoods in an Australian context. With researchers and teachers’ attention being drawn to enhancing the cultural wellbeing, identity and belonging of young children, it asks: who is “the migrant child”? In our response to this question, we disrupt expectations of simplistic, homogeneous views of children of migrant families or backgrounds, including confronting notions such as vulnerability, neediness and deficit.FindingsPotential ways in which “the migrant child” is implicated by diverse social, environmental and political factors underlie the many ways in which children might exercise their autonomy and participation. In Australia, contemporary migration remains clouded by such policies as the only relatively recently overturned “White Australia” policy and so-called “boat turnbacks”, whilst, and especially in post-Covid times, Australian society simultaneously depends on migrant workers in many areas of employment. At the same time, Australia seems to openly celebrate what is seen as “successful” multiculturalism.Originality/valueThese multiple perspectives offer a deeply concerning social and policy environment for researchers and educationalists. It is in this context that we raise questions and speculate towards potential conceptualisations of “the migrant child” which recognise, rather than negate, the powers and insights arising from the child’s experiential, relational and deeply entangled onto-epistemological perspective/s.

Are migrants a threat? Migrant children and human capital investments among local households in urban China

The educational spillovers of migrant children in receiving areas have drawn widespread attention in countries undergoing massive internal migration. Yet few studies have explored how migrant students affect the decision-making process of native households. This study examines the effects and underlying mechanisms of internal migrant children on human capital investments among local households in urban China. Leveraging the random student-classroom assignment within middle schools, we find that migrant peer composition has a significant positive impact on local households’ spending on their children’s education, especially out-of-school education expenditure. These positive effects are more pronounced among local students who are male, in the ninth grade, and come from high socioeconomic status families. The results of our mechanism analysis suggest that the presence of migrant children leads local parents to overestimate their children’s academic performance and raises concerns about potential adverse effects on their children’s educational outcomes. However, we have not found compelling evidence indicating that migrant classmates significantly affect local students’ learning environment, emotional well-being, and actual academic achievements. Our study contributes to the ongoing debate on the educational inclusion of internal migrant children in China and similar contexts, highlighting the importance of addressing the biased beliefs of local households over migrants.