The children of many migrant workers have now settled in cities and grow taller day by day. Under government's extensive care, they receive compulsory education in cities, just like all the other urban children. However, as these children are about to study in senior high schools, new problems appear, the People's Daily reported.

 

"Based on the current educational system, it is very difficult for these migrant children to receive any senior high school education in cities. This will further affect their employment in future. However, if there are no better chances, these children will be reluctant to leave the cities. By that time, they might have a lot of problems," Lu Jiehua, a CPPCC National Committee member and professor from the School of Sociology at Peking University, expressed his concern for migrant children when he accepted an interview on Thursday.

 

The Population and Development Research Center at Renmin University of China recently conducted an investigation with random sampling. The investigation shows that from 1997 to 2006, the number of migrant children in Beijing increased from 155,000 to 504,000, increasing by 3.25 times in nine years. The unmarried group in migrant population might further lead to an increased number of migrant children, mostly of them being the children of migrant workers.

 

Among all the children of migrant workers in Beijing, most have been living in Beijing since they were born. The proportion of this group has kept increasing. In a sense, many of these children can be called "native Beijingers" now. They seldom contact their relatives in their homevillages. They are not familiar with the traditions of their homevillages and have not acquired any knowledge or skills required in their home villages. Many even can't speak the dialect of their hometowns. Most importantly, these children are very different from their parents in that they are never bothered by homesickness. They don't miss their "homevillages" at all and they don't want to go back. Under this situation, large cities, where they live, should think of a way to accept these children, said Professor Lu.

 

(Chinanews.cn March 26, 2007)