Problems of Children of Internal Labor Migrants in Modern China: Analysis of Recent Studies

Abstract

With China's urbanization and its development in market economy, mass rural-to-urban migration expanded over the past 35 years. The change in the forms of parental migration (from single to pair and then family) has led to significant shifts in the situation with rural children, putting forward new research issues. Consequently, children affected by internal labor migration have greatly increased in number, reaching over 100 million people (about 70 million continue to live in villages, and more than 35 million have moved to cities with their parents). Using data from international research published for the past 3 years, we more accurately determined main characteristics of left-behind and migrant-children. Being a vulnerable group in rural China, these children now are facing many problems in mental, physical and psychological development. Due to the differences in the environment in which children grow up we examined the existing approaches of scholars on the impact of internal labor migration on each group. For rural left-behind children the most acute issues are low academic performance, limited educational resources, and disruption in the process of socialization. While urban migration is related to the issues of inclusion in education, cultural isolation, and other psychological problems.