2013 Articles

Labor Migration and Its Impact on the Next Generation

Yang, Lily

China's modernization has transformed tens of millions of rural Chinese out of traditional farming life to seek fortunes in China's great cities. The decision process by which migrant workers determine whether their children should accompany their move is not only interesting in its own right, but it also provides the new evidence to further interpret results from previous studies. This paper details the factors that differentiate children who were left behind and children who migrated. The results of this paper indicate that aside from child and parental characteristics such as age, health, and parental migration status, to name just a few, educational policies in destination cities prove to be strongly correlated with the decision to bring children to cities.