The Rural-Urban Dualistic Social Structure And Self-identity Formation Of Chinese Migrant Children

With the increasing urbanization and social transformation of China, rural migrant children have become an increasingly prominent population in urban cities. However, their needs have largely been neglected by policymakers and educators. Due to the long-existing rural-urban dualistic social structures in China, migrant children who move to urban cities with their parents are placed at serious disadvantages in terms of access to school and quality educational resources. What is more important is that the physical relocation also brings about identity crisis for them, being rural residents but growing up in urban areas and participating in urban schools. This qualitative study investigates the life world of these migrant children through in-depth interviews and participant observations to see how the rural-urban dualistic social structures in China may affect their social identities in relation to their urban native peers, their parents and their schools.Ten migrant children in Beijing were interviewed and observed in their school settings within the period of six months. Three parents and three teachers of the migrant children were also interviewed. Data thus collected were then analyzed through constant comparative method under the guidance of"grounded theory". Results from the study indicate that migrant children come to identify themselves through daily interactions with their"general others", such as their parents, schools and peers:(1) The perspectives and worldviews of the migrant parents about their own identity are a major influence on the self-identity formation of the migrant children. Under the system of the household registration that distinguish strictly between urban residents and rural residents, the Chinese rural parents see themselves as"rural countrymen"who don't belong to the cities and are not entitled to various kinds of rights and welfares that an urban resident has. They have been cultivated in the rural cultural lives as represented by the particular value systems and ways of living in the countryside. This mentality, along with the high mobility of their residence from one place to another in the city, makes the migrant children aware of their inferiority and differences from the urban natives, although the children might otherwise have identified themselves as a righteous member of city.(2) In the schools for migrant children (a special type of schools in China operated by educated migrant rural workers), a special school culture was constructed that emphasizes disadvantages, lack of resources, marginalization, inferiority, etc. This school culture is important to help the migrant children's school obtain precious social resources for their existence and development, but at the same time increases the sense of inferiority in the migrant children and pushes them forward to be an urban outsider.(3) The peer interactions between the migrant children and the urban children reflect the prejudice and discriminations prevalent in the adult world as represented by the parents and teachers. The collision of these two worlds in migrant children's real life brings them sense of inferiority. By transforming this sense of inferiority to an accepted identity, i.e., accepting the inferior self as who they are and what they should be, the migrant children seek to alleviate the tension in their interactions with the peers.Social structure is the patterned model of social interactions between individuals. The rural-urban dualistic social structure in China nowadays, to a large extent, determines the interaction between rural people and urban citizens. Based on the analyses of the daily interactions between the migrant children and their parents, teachers, and peers, my study suggests that the rural migrant children have constructed a self-identity as an urban outsider who is not equal to urban residents. This identity in the migrant children emphasizes their obligations, but ignores their lawful rights in the city.