ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how the urban educational system served to frustrate rural migrant children’s efforts to obtain the kinds of education that they associated with the privileges of urban citizenship. Because they lacked urban citizenship, migrant children were prevented by legal, social, and cultural barriers from enrolling in urban public schools, suffered discrimination and exclusion in these schools, and lacked adequate support to adapt to the new environment. Urban citizenship was legally inscribed in household registration (hukou) and identification documents, and entailed access to social rights such as economic security, health and education. For migrant children, an education that could enable them to compete with urban children for professional work opportunities was the key to preparing them for greater integration and acquiring the cultural capital that could eventually win them cultural belonging and urban social rights. Because they worried the expansion of citizens eligible for urban social rights, however, state officials made little effort to remove educational obstacles that would preserve the marginality of migrant children in urban areas.
