Living with Vulnerabilities and Opportunities in a Migration Context : Floating Children and Left-Behind Children in China

The book grapples with social inequality, inclusivity, and diversity through the discussions of wellbeing, wellbecoming, and resilience of floating children and left-behind children. It invites families, schools, communities, social organisations, and governments to rethink and recognise the qualities of left-behind children and floating children. The book will be of interest to research students, sociologists of education, educational studies scholars, social workers, school professionals, and policy makers in and beyond China. The past two decades have seen exponential growth of urbanisation and migration in China. Emerging from this growth are a myriad population of floating children and left-behind children and the ever greater social-spatial interpenetration that places these children at risk of undesirable wellbeing. The living and schooling of these children are fraught with potholes and distractions in the context of migration and urbanisation. Extant work often treats floating children and left-behind children as two discrete populations and comes to grips with their wellbeing separately. The deficit model and the ‘do-gooder’ approach have prevailed for a long time, intending to fix the “problems” and correct the “abnormalities” associated with these children. This book differs, however, in its efforts to blur the dichotomy between floating children and left-behind children; in its transformative view and strength-based approach that recast vulnerabilities into opportunities; and in its focus on the nurture of enabling ecologies instead of the nature of individual inferiorities. TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 6 PREFACE......Page 8 NOTES......Page 16 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT......Page 18 LIST OF TABLES......Page 20 LIST OF FIGURES......Page 22 BACKGROUND: CHINA IN A SNAPSHOT......Page 24 A PENETRATING OVERVIEW OF URBANISATION IN CHINA......Page 26 The Great Leap Forward Campaign......Page 27 The Cultural Revolution......Page 28 The Rustication Movement......Page 29 The Reform and Opening-up Policy and Onwards......Page 30 Emergent Challenges......Page 32 History......Page 33 Functions of the Household Registration System......Page 35 Control of Internal Population Movement in Other Countries......Page 37 A SYNOPTIC REVIEW OF MIGRATION......Page 38 International Migration......Page 40 Internal Migration......Page 41 Internal Migration in China......Page 42 CHAPTER SUMMARY: FRAMING FLOATING AND LEFT-BEHIND CHILDREN TOGETHER......Page 45 CHAPTER 2: THE WELLBEING OF FLOATING CHILDREN AND LEFT-BEHIND CHILDREN: Conceptual Foundation and Empirical Knowledge......Page 47 REVISITING THE NOTION OF ‘RURALITY’......Page 48 An Open Door to Rurality: What Do We Look at?......Page 49 Living with Rurality in China......Page 51 CONCEPTUALISING WELLBEING......Page 53 THE WELLBEING OF FLOATING CHILDREN AND LEFT-BEHIND CHILDREN......Page 55 The Needs of Left-Behind Children......Page 57 Mental Health and Emotional Needs of Left-Behind Children......Page 58 Physical Health of Left-Behind Children......Page 59 Education of Left-Behind Children......Page 60 Floating Children in Adversity......Page 61 Educational Problems of Floating Children......Page 62 Psychological Problem of Floating Children......Page 65 CHAPTER SUMMARY: TIME TO SHIFT FROM THE MEDICAL DEFICIT MODEL......Page 66 NOTES......Page 68 CHAPTER 3: COMING INTO AN INHERITANCE: Intergenerational Social Reproduction through Class-Based Pedagogies......Page 69 DIFFERENT ROOTS AND ROUTES......Page 71 SOCIAL REPRODUCTION THROUGH THE CLASSED PEDAGOGY AT HOME AND IN SCHOOL......Page 75 Classed Pedagogy and Parental Engagement in Children’s Education......Page 77 Classed Pedagogy and Children’s Academic Engagement and Aspiration for Future......Page 84 Classed Pedagogy in School......Page 88 Potential Durability of Inequalities......Page 91 EMPIRICAL CODA: SOME QUANTITATIVE EVIDENCE ON SOCIAL REPRODUCTION......Page 93 CHAPTER SUMMARY: CHALLENGING THE DETERMINISM CLAIM......Page 96 NOTES......Page 98 CHAPTER 4: RURAL DISPOSITIONS OF FLOATING CHILDREN IN URBAN FIELDS: Accent, Deportment, and Bodily Hexis......Page 100 RESEARCH SITES AND RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS......Page 101 RURAL ACCENT AND DEPORTMENT OF FLOATING CHILDREN......Page 104 BODILY HEXIS: A SET OF DURABLE AND TRANSPOSABLE RURAL DISPOSITIONS......Page 109 THE MODIFICATION OF RURAL DISPOSITIONS AND THE COUNTER-TRAINING OF HABITUS......Page 112 RURAL HABITUS: ITS MARGINALISATION AND MISRECOGNITION......Page 114 THE SHIFTING OF FIELD STRUCTURES AND THE RECOGNITION OF RURAL HABITUS......Page 116 EMPIRICAL CODA: WHAT DO WE SEE IN THE LARGER PICTURE?......Page 118 CHAPTER SUMMARY: ENABLING THE NURTURE INSTEAD OF RESHAPING THE NATURE......Page 119 CHAPTER 5: LIVING WITH KIN CAREGIVERS: Special Needs of Children Left Behind......Page 122 Children’s Health and Emotional Wellbeing......Page 123 Children’s Material Wellbeing......Page 124 Children’s Safety......Page 125 Children’s Relationships......Page 126 RESEARCH SITE AND PARTICIPANTS......Page 127 INFORMAL ALTERNATIVE CARE BY KIN CAREGIVERS: WHY DID THEY STEP IN?......Page 128 Love for the Third Generation......Page 129 Family Ties......Page 130 Family Obligation......Page 131 THE NEEDS MODEL OF CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND IN RURAL CHINA......Page 132 CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND: HOW ARE THEY SEEN AS DIFFERENT?......Page 134 MULTIPLE FIGURES: THEIR ROLES IN ADDRESSING THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND......Page 136 CHAPTER SUMMARY: RESTATING THE NEEDS OF CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND......Page 142 NOTE......Page 143 CHAPTER 6: EDUCATION AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND......Page 144 Formal Education: A Perceived Pathway to a Better Life......Page 145 The Need to Receive Educational Support......Page 147 The Need for Discipline and Restriction......Page 151 The Need for Play Activities......Page 154 The Need for Moral Guidance......Page 156 The Need to Become Independent......Page 158 EDUCATION AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT: WHAT DO THEY MEAN FOR RURAL CHILDREN LEFT BEHIND?......Page 159 CHAPTER SUMMARY: EDUCATION AS A CORE NEED......Page 162 NOTE......Page 163 CHAPTER 7: FLOATING CHILDREN AND LEFT-BEHIND CHILDREN AS RESILIENT AGENTS: A Strength-Based Pathway to Wellbeing......Page 164 REVISITING THE NOTION OF RESILIENCE......Page 165 Revisiting the Vulnerabilities of Floating Children and Left-Behind Children – Lack of Parenting as a Negative Contributor to Resilience......Page 167 Floating Children and Left-Behind Children as Resilient Agents......Page 170 Participation in Family Work as a Potential Resilience Builder......Page 172 Resilience as a Potential Contributor to Wellbecoming......Page 177 An Ecological Approach to Resilience Building......Page 178 CHAPTER SUMMARY: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO RESILIENCE BUILDING......Page 183 NOTES......Page 185 CHAPTER 8: CONCLUSION: A Call for System-Level Change......Page 186 A RECAPITULATION OF WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED SO FAR......Page 187 IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY AND PRACTICE......Page 190 SCHOLARLY CONTRIBUTION: RETHINKING THE DEFICITS THROUGH A STRENGTH-BASED PERSPECTIVE......Page 192 FINAL REMARKS......Page 194 SCHOOL STAFF SUPPORT SCALE......Page 195 REFERENCES......Page 197 INDEX......Page 211 The past two decades have seen exponential growth of urbanisation and migration in China. Emerging from this growth are a myriad population of floating children and left-behind children and the ever greater social-spatial interpenetration that places these children at risk of undesirable wellbeing. The living and schooling of these children are fraught with potholes and distractions in the context of migration and urbanisation. Extant work often treats floating children and left-behind children as two discrete populations and comes to grips with their wellbeing separately. The deficit model and the ‘do-gooder'approach have prevailed for a long time, intending to fix the “problems” and correct the “abnormalities” associated with these children. This book differs, however, in its efforts to blur the dichotomy between floating children and left-behind children; in its transformative view and strength-based approach that recast vulnerabilities into opportunities; and in its focus on the nurture of enabling ecologies instead of the nature of individual inferiorities. The book grapples with social inequality, inclusivity, and diversity through the discussions of wellbeing, wellbecoming, and resilience of floating children and left-behind children. It invites families, schools, communities, social organisations, and governments to rethink and recognise the qualities of left-behind children and floating children. The book will be of interest to research students, sociologists of education, educational studies scholars, social workers, school professionals, and policy makers in and beyond China. The past two decades have seen exponential growth of urbanisation and migration in China. Emerging from this growth are a myriad population of floating children and left-behind children and the ever greater social-spatial interpenetration that places these children at risk of undesirable wellbeing. The living and schooling of these children are fraught with potholes and distractions in the context of migration and urbanisation. Extant work often treats floating children and left-behind children as two discrete populations and comes to grips with their wellbeing separately. The deficit model and the 'do-gooder' approach have prevailed for a long time, intending to fix the "problems" and correct the "abnormalities" associated with these children. This book differs, however, in its efforts to blur the dichotomy between floating children and left-behind children; in its transformative view and strength-based approach that recast vulnerabilities into opportunities; and in its focus on the nurture of enabling ecologies instead of the nature of individual inferiorities. The book grapples with social inequality, inclusivity, and diversity through the discussions of wellbeing, wellbecoming, and resilience of floating children and left-behind children. It invites families, schools, communities, social organisations, and governments to rethink and recognise the qualities of left-behind children and floating children. The book will be of interest to research students, sociologists of education, educational studies scholars, social workers, school professionals, and policy makers in and beyond China