Author: chineseedmobilities

Chen, J. (2019). Self-abandonment or seeking an alternative way out: understanding Chinese rural migrant children’s resistance to schooling. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 1-16. doi:10.1080/01425692.2019.1691504

Because of the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and significant economic success in urban areas, unprecedented numbers of rural people have flocked to cities seeking work, creating an extensive urban manual labor force (Chan and Pun 2010; Shi 2010; Wang 1998). By 2016, the total population of rural migrant workers in China had reached 281.71 million (National Bureau of Statistics of China 2017). Yet, because of the hukou (household registration 户口) system, these rural migrants are deemed ‘non-local’ or ‘rural residents’ in urban areas, effectively excluding them from the urban welfare system, including public education for their children.

In 2010, there were an estimated 35.81 million migrant children (aged 17 or younger) in China (All-China Women’s Federation 2013). Researchers have found migrant children are more likely to fail in their schooling, and to be tracked into vocational schools or directly into the manual labor market (Li 2015; Ling 2015; Song, Zeng, and Zhang 2017). Previous studies have mainly blamed China’s hukou system for the difficulties rural migrant children (RMC) facing in accessing urban schooling and their being forced to attend private migrant schools (Chen and Feng 2013; Kwong 2011; Lai et al. 2014; Li and Placier 2015). Some researchers have recently argued that migrant children also play an active role in reproducing their migrant parents’ low social-economic status, through resisting schooling (Xiong 2015; Zhou 2011). However, few studies have examined the complexity of migrant children’s resistance, especially the complex meanings embedded in resistant behaviors, which are essential for understanding student agency (Giroux 1983; Lanas and Corbett 2011). This article bridges this research gap.

This study examined the diverse forms of RMC’s school resistance in their interactions with the school system and with surrounding social inequalities in urban society. Qualitative investigations were conducted in two primary schools in the Sun District (pseudonym) of Beijing. Three patterns of RMC’s school behavior emerged from the analysis of interview data and observations: conformist learner, education abandoner, and nascent transformative resister.

Most, if not all, RMC under study had strong expectations of bettering their and their families’ futures through individual efforts. A conformist learner is someone for whom pursuing education is the preferred means of achieving this desired betterment. Xi, for example, a sixth-grade male student, clearly expressed high educational expectations in his interview, saying ‘studying well can help me enter a key point middle school, then a key point high school, then a first- class university’ and eventually a Master’s program. He believed a high-level educational credential would command a high salary in the labor market, meaning a bright future for him.

Although RMC in general believed in the significance of education, many did not feel they were capable of achieving educational success and so were less inclined to pursue it. Some became education abandoners, dismissing education as irrelevant to their future betterment. Upon education abandonment, they began searching for alternative opportunities to advance their future social positions. For instance, Miao knew going to university could help him ‘become a boss [and help him to] walk my way out of peasant life and towards the city life’, but he felt that he had little possibility of succeeding in school education. Thus, his best option, he felt, was to ‘work as a worker at first, [to] earn and save some money. Then open my own company, [and] become the boss myself ’. However, these migrant children perceived their entering the world of manual labor as a strategic move towards the pursuit of a higher social position, such as becoming ‘the boss’, with no intention of doing low-paying, low-ranked manual working jobs henceforth.

Many RMC in this study had already shown their awareness of social inequalities. Indeed, it was hard for them not to, as inequality was a daily experience in their lives. Conformist learners, therefore, chose to study hard for a university degree so that they could find better jobs, earn a higher salary, and improve the living conditions of the whole family. Education abandoners, by contrast, gave up pursuing academic success and decided to enter the labor market as long-game players. Both were searching for opportunities for self-improvement to the best of their ability but lacked a social justice agenda.

Yet, a small group of migrant children were found to present the potential of developing transformational resistance, for example Student Le. Le’s aim of pursuing a position at the Education Bureau was not merely to improve his living conditions. Instead, it was one step towards a further agenda of changing the education policy for RMC, so that other RMC need not face the same unequal school access as he does. Nevertheless, the reason for considering them as only nascent resisters is that they still seem confused about who or what is to blame for social inequalities and how to act.

As Kipnis (2001a) has argued, Chinese society has traditionally featured a widely held and strong belief in schooling for upward social mobility. While teachers also kept emphasizing the significance of academic pursuit, RMC successfully internalized the ideology of meritocracy. Therefore, most migrant children in this study were initially conformist learners. The change process from conformist learners to education abandoners reflects the ongoing decrease in migrant children’s self-efficacy in achieving academic success throughout their education. This can be attributed to the school’s promotion of educational pursuit always going hand-in-hand with a highlight on students’ alleged responsibility for their academic failure.

Besides, the potential of RMC in developing transformative resistance was based on their personal experience and awareness of the social inequality caused by both an oppressive employment relationship and rural-urban differentiation in the broader society. Nevertheless, the vulnerable pursuit of social justice among nascent resisters indicates the difficulty of transferring children’s initial awareness into critical reflection. While teacher-student discussions about social oppressions rural migrants facing in urban society could benefit students’ development of transformative resistance, this is challenged by school’s dominant ideology of meritocracy and a teaching agenda that legitimizes social inequality.

This study suggests that migrant children’s school resistance should not be considered as a developed group culture, stemming from their migrant family culture in contradiction with mainstream culture in the schooling. Rather, migrant children’s school resistance reflects their perceptions of social realities, which are still open to change while the children are interacting with the school system. Therefore, the analysis of Chinese RMC’s educational failure should go beyond children’s self-defeating resistance to mainstream schooling.

Author Biography

Jiaxin Chen is Research Assistant Professor in School of Graduate Studies at Lingnan University, Hong Kong (beginning March 2020). She received her PhD from the University of Hong Kong, and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the East China Normal University, Shanghai, China. Her research interests include education inequality and mobility with a strong focus on disadvantaged children, migration, citizenship education and academic mobility. She can be contacted via the following email address: jxchen881116@163.com

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Mulvey, B. (2019). International Higher Education and Public Diplomacy: A Case Study of Ugandan Graduates from Chinese Universities. Higher Education Policy, 1-19.

This article addresses the recruitment of international students by Chinese universities as a means of public diplomacy. The Chinese government invests heavily in recruiting international students to study in Chinese universities, with the rationale that this will lead to improved relations between China and students’ respective home countries. However, empirical evidence for, and understanding of, the mechanisms through which international study leads to improved relations between host and sending country is weak (Wilson, 2014). Whilst there is a consensus in the scholarly literature with regard to China’s intention to use international student recruitment ion order to meet foreign policy goals, there has been very little empirical research carried out with the aim of exploring how China may be accumulating influence through international student recruitment in individual countries.

Students from Africa appear to be of particular importance within China’s international student recruitment. In total during 2018, the Chinese Ministry of Education indicates that 81,562 African students studied in China (Ministry of Education, 2019). This means that the number of African students in China is now greater than the number in the UK or USA, making China the second largest destination country for internationally mobile African tertiary education students. With this in mind, one country in Africa with particularly close relations with China – Uganda – was chosen as a case study of interest. The Ugandan government is almost unique in that it was one of the first African governments to follow China’s development model (Waldron, 2008; Shen and Taylor, 2012). It is also a member state of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), announced in 2013, which has rapidly become the dominant representation of China’s foreign policy practices. International student mobility is therefore just one facet of an expanding network of social, political, and economic ties between Uganda and China.

The case study uncovered common experiences of social alienation as a barrier to ‘deep’ social interactions that appear to be an important means of change in attitude towards the host country (Lomer, 2017a). Participants generally reported experiences of discrimination on the basis of race in China, and this emerged in the interviews as an important potential barrier to positive social interactions and a sense of community between participants and local people. It is important to note, however, that these negative interactions were largely outside of the university, rather than with faculty or local students. These perceptions and experiences of isolation were common. Most cited examples of what they perceived to be anti-African racism in everyday interactions, or when trying to find part-time work—this echoes some previous studies on African students in China, and research on anti-African racism in China more generally, in which there is a common argument that the Chinese perception of Africans is essentialized and racialized, creating a negative image of Africa in China, and often leading to negative experiences for Africans who study or work there (e.g. Cheng, 2011; Haugen, 2013; Ho, 2017; 2018; King, 2013). In particular, Ho (2018, 20), exploring the gastronomic practices of African students in China, echoes these findings, writing that ‘[t]he “Western” experience continues to hold allure for the African student migrants in China, reinforced by their encounters with prejudice and social exclusion in Chinese society’. In other words, the experiences of social exclusion highlighted in both Ho’s study, and this one, effectively act to subvert Chinese soft power.

Although the participants in this study expressed how feelings of social alienation and discrimination shaped their experiences in China, when asked to reflect on how attitudes towards China had changed over the course of study, most participants focused on academic experiences, which were largely positive, and on a sense of ‘understanding’ of Chinese society. Participants often mentioned learning not only from faculty members but also from the attitudes of Chinese students. A previous survey of African students in China highlighted that a constant refrain from students was the impact and transfer of Chinese attitudes towards work and study (King, 2013). Similarly, participants in this study emphasized learning from Chinese counterparts.

However, most participants were somewhat sceptical about Chinese involvement in Uganda, despite the fact the majority received full scholarships from the Chinese government. The following quote is fairly typical in that it highlights graduates’ sceptical attitudes towards Chinese involvement in Uganda:

“Most of the time they look at how to promote their business. I think we can call it a sweet colonial ideology. Like they are colonising us softly, and in a very sweet way and a polite way… they win favour with your government.” (Participant 9)

Waters (2018, 306) writes that a result of the soft power rationale for international higher education provision is ‘the dehumanizing of the international student’ which ‘means that they are rarely seen as political or social actors in their own right’. This flaw within the rationale is highlighted by the excerpts above. Students left China with a better understanding of relationship between the two countries, but ultimately held critical views towards their host as a result of this understanding.

Despite reporting some negative or alienating experiences in China and scepticism towards some aspects of Sino-Ugandan bilateral relations, participants found that undertaking employment related to China’s interests in Uganda was also a means to gain economic advantage. Engaging in mobility to China allowed participants to accumulate a variety of resources which, due to the relationship between Uganda and China, are increasingly easily convertible into advantages in the labour market. The rapidly changing position of China in relation to Uganda means that credentials which theoretically offer proof of the holders’ China-related competencies (in this case an understanding of Chinese language and culture) are highly valued by employers and can be utilised for economic gain through trade or business consulting. This incentivises Ugandan graduates to leverage their China related competencies for their own benefit—as opposed to a desire to forward China’s national interests. These participants perceived that Chinese language ability and, more broadly, an understanding of the nuances of Chinese culture gained whilst in China have been important in post-graduation career trajectories. Strikingly, all other than one who had studied medicine and worked in a Ugandan hospital corroborated claims here about the value of understanding Chinese language and culture in the Ugandan job market.

The article concludes by highlighting two apparent flaws in China’s assumptions about higher education as a means of public diplomacy. Chinese policy towards international students fails to account for firstly, the individual agency of students, and secondly, for how students’ agentic decision-making is related to the structure of the global political economy, and the sending and host country’s relative positions within it. The evidence presented highlights the nuanced and complex views of graduates towards their host and demonstrates that students are in fact political actors in their own right, rather than passive diplomatic tools, as policy texts in many destination countries sometimes imply.

Author bio

Ben Mulvey is a PhD candidate at the Education University of Hong Kong and visiting research student at University College London Department of Geography. Ben’s research focuses on sub-Saharan African students in China, and what this student flow can reveal about China’s attempts to (re)shape the global “field” of higher education. He can be contacted via the following email address: bmulvey@s.eduhk.hk

Over the past decade, a wave of Chinese international undergraduates has swept across American higher education. From 2005 to 2015, the number of these largely self-funded students in the US jumped from 9,304 to 135,629, a more than tenfold increase. And despite the Trump administration’s chilly immigration policy and the overall decline in international enrolment during 2017-18, Chinese undergraduate enrolment still grew by another 4 per cent, according to data from the Institute of International Education.

This conspicuous presence of Chinese students in the US has given rise to major headlines in the media, usually with a strong focus on the students’ falsely assumed universal wealth. More recently, Chinese students have been politicised and labelled as spies by the Trump administration. As a result, the voices of these students have been silenced and their experiences obscured.

My research, at both Chinese high schools and American institutions of higher education, reveals a diverse set of Chinese students, with varying resources and different educational journeys. Their accounts illustrate that studying in the US is no longer reserved for academic or economic elites, and they reflect the increasing ambition and ability of China’s burgeoning middle and upper-middle classes to obtain for their children a credential from what they take to be the best higher education system in the world.

My research also reveals the very complicated and sometimes contradictory desires and behaviours of Chinese international undergraduates in the US. They complain that their previous education in China posed a threat to their creativity, yet they credit the Chinese system for their tenacity in learning and their solid training in mathematics and science. They appear to like hanging out among their Chinese peers, yet the presence of so many other Chinese students in their classes makes them question the point of studying in the US. Many are silent in the classroom but quietly fret about the potential damage this does to their grades. And while they often desire a liberal arts college education that is not test-oriented, they still work their hearts out to take the SAT and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) multiple times, as if scores on these exams were the only thing that mattered when applying to their dream schools.

All this highlights the fact that the US and China are very different societies with distinct education systems, cultural values and social norms. Because Chinese students are steeped in the test-based university admissions system that operates in their own country, they are placed in a cultural bind by the holistic admissions criteria that characterise US college admissions.

These criteria are also disconnected from the everyday realities of Chinese schooling. Few people in a typical student’s social network in China can write recommendation letters in English, and school counsellors are beyond the reach of many. However, to be competitive, Chinese students have to learn quickly how to equip themselves with interesting experiences and present themselves in a way that meets the expectations of American institutions. This entails a dramatic change of behaviour and a steep learning curve – and incentivises Chinese students to resort to the billion-dollar industry that has emerged in China to help them navigate US college admissions, with specialist agencies offering everything from test prep and essay-writing to extracurricular, internship and research opportunities.

As for which college to choose, rankings light the way. Their straightforwardly hierarchical nature mirrors the scoring system of the gao kao, China’s national college admissions exam, offering convenience and comfort to anxious Chinese students and their parents who are otherwise grappling in the dark with the unknowns and unpredictabilities of the US admissions system.

To improve this, US institutions need to invest more in direct recruiting in China, disseminating information about themselves that goes beyond the rankings and sharing knowledge about how to navigate the application process. This increased investment in direct recruitment – which could be achieved by networking and partnering with local Chinese schools – would help to yield better-prepared and better-qualified students. It would also help Chinese students and their families to identify the programmes and schools that fit with their abilities and interests – rather than leaving them to the mercies of the third-party agencies and the testing rat race.

Once the students have arrived, US institutions need to do more to integrate them. Contrary to widespread perceptions that Chinese students want to remain within their own groups, I found in them a strong and sometimes explicit yearning to make American friends. Yet they struggle to overcome barriers that include the individualistic orientation of American society, the excessive partying and drinking that marks the social scene on US campuses, and the lack of Western-based cultural knowledge and capital. All this leaves them feeling marginalised and excluded, contributing to a process of withdrawal into their Chinese peer groups for comfort and support.

Chinese students need their US institutions to provide diverse networking opportunities for them. For example, international student offices, which typically serve as little more than places to rubber-stamp visa paperwork, need to reimagine themselves as social homes for international students and as forums to bring them together with US students. I have found that participation in campus organisations gives a strong boost to friendship formation with Americans.

The disadvantages faced by first-generation Chinese students, whose parents have never been to college, are particularly severe. They are more likely to have poor English and less likely to have close American friends. Their marginalisation is sometimes masked by their economic resources, but it is no less real for it. Institutions need to be acutely aware of their predicament and provide targeted support to help them integrate.

Until institutions make systematic and sustained efforts, the cultural and social benefits to American higher education brought by Chinese students will not be realised – and Chinese students will leave American institutions feeling disappointed.

*Note: This article was initially published in Times Higher Education here.

Author Bio

Yingyi Ma is associate professor of sociology and director of Asian/Asian American studies at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University. Her book  Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese College Students Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education will be published in February by Columbia University Press.