Thursday, March 01, 2012

Blog 7:Education Inequality for Migrant Children


There are 200 million migrants in China who cannot receive a permanent residence or hukou.  Although many migrants are residents of China, they cannot receive a permanent residence. China’s hukou system was established in 1958 to control the migration in the country. If a child of a migrant is born anywhere else their hukou is depended on where their parents were born.  Many migrants have lived in China for generation yet they still cannot receive full residence. Many migrant’s children often run into problems when they have to take the gaokao or the country’s exam to get into higher education.  Many migrants are upset because their children or the entire family will have to leave China in order for their children to get an education thus leaving many parents to never see their children again or causing the parents to lose their jobs because they have to move back home. When children go back “home” to take the test the material is a lot different than what they learned in China.
I believe that this is a global problem because this is inequality. This is a problem because although many of these children are born in China they cannot get full residence because of where their parents were born.   Migrants are discriminated against and are treated like second class citizen even though they work and do the jobs that many Chinese people do not want to do.  Many schools have been closed down for migrant children making it impossible for student to be prepared for the gaokao.  Many families cannot afford to travel back home for their child(s) to get an education because it cost too much and they are torn between letting their child(s) go back to their homeland or the whole family moving.  This should not be a decision that anyone has to make.  I believe that China is purposely making it hard for foreign children to get an education to compete with their students. 

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