Residential segregation and educational attainment of children from regional migrant families in China

• Author: Xiangjun Ma,Yean Zhou
• Date: 01 February 2019
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/rode.12544
• Published date: 01 February 2019

REGULAR ARTICLE

Residential segregation and educational attainment

of children from regional migrant families in China

Xiangjun Ma

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Yean Zhou

2

1

School of International Trade and

Economics, University of International

Business and Economics, Beijing, China

2

Renmin University of China, Beijing,

China

Correspondence

Xiangjun Ma, School of International

Trade and Economics, University of

International Business and Economics, 10

Huixin East Street, Chaoyang District,

Beijing, China.

Email: xm2e@virginia.edu

Funding information

National Natural Science Foundation of

China, Grant/Award Number: 71503045;

Beijing Social Science Funding, Grant/

Award Number: 15JGC158

Abstract

This paper studies the residential segregation effects on edu-

cational attainment of children from regional migrant families

in China. We find that if migrant families live in segregated

communities with fewer local residents, the school dropout

rate of the children living with their parents in the host cities

is higher and their high school enrollment rate is lower. We

employ a unique set of nationwide survey data of regional

migrants in China in 2012 and 2013 that comprises more

than 150,000 individuals in each year. We first use the ratio

of migrants over the total population residing in a community

to measure segregation.When the ratio increases by 10%, the

school dropout rate of migrant children increases by 4.7%

from the mean value. Secondly, we identify segregation from

the housing type of the migrant family. When they reside in

the dorms provided by their employe rs or in the workplace,

they will also be surrounded by many migrant colleagues.

We find that living in such places increa ses the “not-going-

to-high-school rate”of migrant children by 35% from the

mean value. Our subsample analysis indicates that the segre-

gation effects only exist in the samples of male migrant chil-

dren and rural hukou families.

KEYWORDS

residential segregation, regional migrants, school dropout rate, not-

going-to-high-school rate

DOI: 10.1111/rode.12544

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© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/rode Rev Dev Econ. 2019;23:348–375.

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INTRODUCTION

The impact of residential segregation on the education of the second generation of low-income

families has been investigated in the literature. However, few studies have focused on the regional

migrant families in China because of data limitations. The scale of regional migration in China is

remarkably large. Compared with 42.4 million total immigrants in the USA from all over the

world, there are 253 million regional migrants in China, that is, one-third of total urban population

of the nation in 2014.

1

This paper employs a dataset from a nationwide survey of regional

migrants in China to study the influence of residential segregation on the school dropout rate of all

school types (i.e., primary school, middle school, and high school) and, in particular, the high

school enrollment rate of children from regional migrant families. Dropping out of school, espe-

cially not going to high school, limits the career development of migrant children. Economic

researchers usually define skilled labor as college graduates. Children who do not graduat e from

high school cannot enter college and almost surely become unskilled labor.

The educational attainment of migrant children is an important issue for public policies on social

integration and the economic development of the host cities. On the one hand, the disposable income

of regional migrants in China is on average lower than that of urban citizens.

2

If the poor economic

status of the first generation is transmitted through residential segregation and education to the second

generation, social integration will not be achieved and social stratification will gradually occur. The

US experience has proven that living in segregated high-poverty neighborhoods for multiple genera-

tions creates an additional barrier to the achievement of African-American children (Rothstein, 2015).

On the other hand, in recent years, the local governments of large-population cities in China, such as

Beijing and Shanghai, regard unskilled migrants as a burden. However, if we look toward the future,

the question to ask is whether this second generation of migrants will become skilled or unskilled

labor over the following decade and what forces will be influential in this outcome. In this paper, we

investigate only the education decisions of children living with their parents in the host cities. We do

not consider the children left behind, because they are not directly affected by residential segregation

in the host cities and do not influence labor structure and industry upgrade of the host cities.

Residential segregation in our context refers to the situation in which regional migrants often inha-

bit remote communities with fewer local residents, because of their poor economic status and the high

rental prices in the popular areas in host cities.

3

In theory, neighborhood externalities and peer effects

are the mechanisms that explain the impact of residential segregation on the education decisions of

migrant families. First of all, migrant families living in segregated communities cannot capture the

positive neighborhood externalities with regard to education and information resources from local

urban citizens. Urban residents in China generally prioritize children's education more than those

from rural areas, who account for the majority of regional migrants.

4

If these two groups live sepa-

rately, urban residents cannot set examples for migrant parents to increase their awareness of the

importance of education in the development of human capital. Bobonis and Finan (2009) show that

neighborhood has considerable influence on the school enrollment decisions of children from poorer

households. The literature on how neighborhood externalities take effect through information sharing

and model learning has been well framed (e.g., Wilson, 2012; Durlauf, 2000; Cutler and Glaeser,

1997). Becker and Murphy (2009) point out that the disparity and inequality from neighborhood

externalities will be strengthened and passed to the next generation. Research that specifically focuses

on children's educational attainment and neighborhoods includes Patacchini and Zenou (2011), Varta-

nian and Gleason (1999), Rumberger (2001), and Harding (2003); however, Solon et al. (2000) iden-

tify a limited role for neighborhood factors in accounting for inequality in educational attainment.

Our paper aims to test the effects using regional migrant data from China.

MA AND ZHOU

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