Education as a Means of Integration into the City

This study explores and analyzes migrant children s educational issues in China s southwest metropolitan city of Chengdu as reflected in a government-sponsored Honghua School. In recent years, instead of traveling alone to their destination cities, more and more migrant workers have chosen to travel with their families. As a result, their children s educational needs have become an area of concern and conflict, due largely to China s outdated hukou household registration system that ties social benefits closely to the person s place of hukou registration. While largely looked upon as a labor export province, Sichuan, with its capital of Chengdu, also has witnessed intra-province migrant arrivals from the rural regions in Sichuan. Recently, as China s coastal manufacturing facilities have been negatively impacted by the global economic recession, many Sichuan migrants have lost their factory jobs, which has forced them to return to Sichuan. Many of these returnees choose to stay in Chengdu with their families and seek jobs there. Are the Chengdu schools ready for the growing number of migrant children? Are any proactive measures being taken to ensure their education?