A Study On The Social Integration And Integrating Strategies Of Chinese Migrant Children

Following China’s social and economic transformation in 1980s, the largest migrant population in human history appeared. And as an important part of the migrant population, the migrant children show distinct group characteristic and strong will of social integration. Their social integrationis vital not only for the future of this very group, but for the future of the urban and rural development. This study focused on Chinese Migrant Children’s social integration on a psychologicallevel. From a positive outlook on development, using Social Identity Theory and Acculturation Theory, the study researched on status quo of migrant children’s social integration, affection factors, affecting mechanisms and strategy choosing, etc.Based on previous researches on the same topic, this study consists of six researches on three levels, using questionnaires and experiments to answer two main questions regarding the social integration process of migrant children. Question 1: WHAT is the exact process of migrant children’s social integration? We answered this question through three researches on two levels:phenomenon description and mechanism explanation. The first research used questionnaire to investigate the status quo and affecting factors of migrant children’s psychological social integration. Research 2 used experimental research paradigm to reveal how perceived discrimination affect social integration. Research 3 also used experimental research paradigm to investigate the influence of intergroup permeability on migrant children’s academic performance. Question 2 is HOW to realize social integration on psychological level. To answer this question, we performed three researches on integration strategies:Research 4 used questionnaire to classify migrant children’s identity management strategies. Research 5 used questionnaire to analyse migrant children’s acculturation strategies, and aimed at solving cultural dilemma conflict during migrant children’s social integration. Research 6 used both questionnaire and experiment to study "Hopefulness", a psychological quality of migrant children and solve the problem of individual differences during migrant children’s social integration.Through the six researches above, we get the following results on the migrant children’spsychological social integration:(1) The level of psychological social integration of migrant children needs to be improved, with perceived discrimination being one of the main affecting factors. (2) Intergroup permeability has moderated mediating effect in the process of social integration and has salient effect on migrant children’s academic performance. (3) The identity management strategies of migrant childrencan be classified to individual mobility\intergroup competition and social creation, and group identity is the key factor for the choice of strategies. (4) Migrant children’s acculturation strategies can be classified to combination, assimilation, separation and marginalization, and combination mode is the most often used strategy by migrant children and has a positive effect on their social integration. (5) The hopefulness of migrant children as a key positive psychological quality has a mediating effect in their social integration.