Vicious Cycle of Rural Decline: Rural Educational Migration in China

• In Event: Education for Whom and for What? Reconceptualizing Educational Inequality in Urbanizing China

Abstract

The past years have witnessed a new round of rural exodus spurred not by economic reasons but by education. Rural parents flock into nearby townships and county seats to enroll their children in high performing urban schools, abandoning the rural schools in villages or small towns where they originally lived (F. Cheng, 2008；Song, 2012; Q. Ye & S. Chen, 2013). They relocate their families in the urban areas in order to take care of the children, setting a new trend of migration to county-level small cities. It is estimated that some rural communities have lost one quarter to half of their school-aged children together with their families to urban schools (Wang & Xue, 2012). We call this phenomenon “educational migration” in rural China.

The strong urban attraction takes roots in the economic and cultural disparities between rural and urban settings. The glaring income inequality between agriculture and other urban industries drives the rural labor force in millions into cities for better job prospects. Similarly, the enormous gap in educational quality causes the rural parent flight into urban schools. People flee the countryside for advancement of individual families, yet further accentuating the decline of rural communities.

This study precisely reveals this vicious cycle of inequality engendered by rural educational migration. It showcases one county in Central China to illustrate the impact of educational migration on rural communities. Data are drawn from six urban schools and six rural schools in the county in addition to 34 in-depth interviews and 274 questionnaires with rural parents. Findings confirm the prevailing trend of educational migration with rural schools losing one-third to 60% of students to urban schools. Comparison of parents’ socioeconomic status demonstrates that educational migrant families possess higher income and education than the left-behind families in rural villages. The movers usually aspire to middle class white-collar occupations for their children and express little intention to return to villages or agricultural work. As the result, villages are left with children and families with least means and greatest hardship.

The departure of the educational migrant families have triggered impact detrimental to rural economy, including the loss of labor, reduced agricultural production, increased land desertification, and the draining economic pool as the migrant families no longer consume and invest in local rural areas. It also dissolves social bonds in rural villages as the elderly move to cities as caregivers of their grandchildren. Children moving to urban schools are exposed to little rural traditions and hardly embrace their rural roots. In sum, individual families try to escape poverty through education, only leaving the rural communities sinking deeper. The phenomenon of rural educational migration wakens us to the lamentable vicious cycle of rural decline. It poses serious questions on the social function and commitment of education as a public enterprise for common good.

Authors

• Dan Wang, The University of Hong Kong

• Teng Yuan, University of Hong Kong