Han and ethnic minority migrant student college access in Gansu, China: investigating family social capital and hukou status

• In Event: Educating vulnerable youth in China’s urbanizing context: the schooling of rural, migrant and ethnic minority children

Proposal

China has been implementing rapid economic and social reforms over the last thirty years. Relaxing the enforcement of the household registration (hukou) policy has resulted in a large internal migration of individuals and families (Howell & Fan, 2011; Zai & Ma, 2004). More and more children are migrating with their parents and face both social and educational barriers (Chiang, Hannum, & Kao, 2013; Kong, 2016). Researchers find that parental social capital is associated with migrant children’s academic outcomes (Wu, Palinkas, & He, 2010; Wu, Tsang, & Ming, 2014). Despite different demographic characteristics of Han and ethnic minority migrants, little research has been conducted on the role of social capital for non-Han migrants (Howell & Fan, 2011). Additionally, most of the existing studies fail to include non-migrant local children or local children as a comparison group (Wu et al., 2010). Our study seeks to address these gaps in the literature by studying the relationship between parent social capital and access to higher education in a western province by including non-Han and Han migrant children and local children.

We draw on Coleman’s (1987, 1990) concept of social capital to understand how non-Han and Han migrant parents use their social networks and relations to support their children’s access to higher education. We focus on parental social capital including how parents communicate educational expectations to their children, promote children’s self-efficacy in schooling, and interact with teachers to support their children’s access to higher education (Coleman, 1988; McNeal, 1999).

Our study introduces ethnicity and local children as important dimensions to understanding college access for migrant youth population. Using a survey of 2,586 final year senior high school students in Gansu province in Northwest China, we conducted ANOVA analysis and multinomial logistic regression analyses to investigate the relationships between parental social capital, student migration status, ethnicity, and student college access (no college admission, access to vocational colleges, access to third-tier high-cost universities, access to second-tier local universities, and access to first-tier key universities). ANOVA results show differences in several forms of parental social capital, including parental regulation of child’s use of time, parental help with homework, and parental inquiry about child’s use of time after school, based on student ethnicity and hukou status. Multinomial logistic regression results indicate that in general, compared to Han local students, Han non-local students are less likely to be enrolled in first tier and third tier universities, and non-Han non-local students have a lower chance of gaining admission to second-tier and first-tier universities. Moreover, punitive, authoritarian parenting are associated with significantly decreased likelihood of non-Han non-local students’ enrolling in first-tier universities (p = .016).

We find parental social capital varies by ethnicity and hukou status. This study extends our understanding of migrant education by including ethnicity (Han and non-Han) and student hukou status as important dimensions of educational inequality. Our study sheds light on challenges to equal access to higher education for ethnic minority migrant children.

Keywords: social capital, ethnic minority, migrant students, college access, Chin


References
Chiang, Y., Hannum, E. C., & Kao, G. (2013). It’s not just about the money: Motivations for youth migration in rural China. (Asia-Pacific Education, Language Minorities and Migration Network Working Paper Series 6). Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/elmm/6
Coleman, J. S. (1987). Families and schools. Educational Researcher, 16, 32-38.
Coleman, J. S. (1988). Social capital in the creation of human capital. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 95-120.
Coleman, J. S. (1990). Foundations of social theory. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Howell, A., & Fan, C. C. (2011). Migration and inequality in Xinjiang: A survey of Han and Uyghur migrants in Urumqi. Eurasian Geography and Economics, 52, 119-139.
Kong, P. A. (2016). Parenting, education, and social mobility in rural China: Cultivating dragons and phoenixes. New York, NY: Routledge.
McNeal, R. B. (1999). Parental involvement as social capital: Differential effectiveness on science achievement, truancy, and dropping out. Social Forces, 78, 117-144.
Wu, Q., Palinkas, L. A., & He, X. (2010). An ecological examination of social capital effects on the academic achievement of Chinese migrant children. British Journal of Social Work, 40, 2578-2594.
Wu, Q., Tsang, B., & Ming, H. (2014). Social capital, family support, resilience and educational outcomes of Chinese migrant children. British Journal of Social Work, 44, 636-656.
Zai, L, & Ma, Z. (2004). China’s floating population: New evidence from the 2000 census. Population and Development Review, 30, 467-488

Authors

• Xiaoran Yu, Lehigh University

• Peggy A. Kong, Lehigh University