Residential segregation and educational attainment of children from regional migrant families in China

• Published in: Review of development economics 2019-02, Vol.23 (1), p.348-375
• Main Authors: Ma, Xiangjun, Zhou, Yean
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Children; Dropping out; Economic models; Educational attainment; Enrollments; Families & family life; Housing; Migrants; not‐going‐to‐high‐school rate; regional migrants; Residential segregation; Rural communities; school dropout rate; School dropouts; Secondary schools; Workplaces
• ISSN: 1363-6669; 1467-9361
• DOI: 10.1111/rode.12544

This paper studies the residential segregation effects on educational attainment of children from regional migrant families in China. We find that if migrant families live in segregated communities with fewer local residents, the school dropout rate of the children living with their parents in the host cities is higher and their high school enrollment rate is lower. We employ a unique set of nationwide survey data of regional migrants in China in 2012 and 2013 that comprises more than 150,000 individuals in each year. We first use the ratio of migrants over the total population residing in a community to measure segregation. When the ratio increases by 10%, the school dropout rate of migrant children increases by 4.7% from the mean value. Secondly, we identify segregation from the housing type of the migrant family. When they reside in the dorms provided by their employers or in the workplace, they will also be surrounded by many migrant colleagues. We find that living in such places increases the “not‐going‐to‐high‐school rate” of migrant children by 35% from the mean value. Our subsample analysis indicates that the segregation effects only exist in the samples of male migrant children and rural hukou families.