Children of Rural Migrant Worker in China： Left behind or Moving with Parents

周栩丹

It is a tough question for rural migrant workers whether to take their children with them while migrating around big cites or leave them at home.Considering the unstable life as well as the expensive cost of living in cities，many parents prefer leaving children behind with grandparents in rural areas.On the one hand，parents can focus on making money without being distracted by childcare.On the other hand，children left behind can help to share house chores and do farm work for aging grandparents.However，there are also considerable open-minded parents who take children to big cities at any cost，with a hope to broaden their world views and prepare them for a better future.

Education is a common question faced by both children left behind and staying with migrant parents.In this process，cultural discontinuity and cultural transmission display themselves to different degrees in both groups.In a broad sense，China is a country with Confucius heritage，so the majority of Chinese share common root.Major cities，especially those along eastern coast，are the frontier where globalization exerts great influence.In the long run，free market shakes and dilutes Confucius culture in those places.

Confucius features are better preserved in rural areas that are relatively enclosed.Children left behind risk having more conflict when they leave traditional family and enter formal education.Normally，leftover children are taken care of by aging grandparents whose mindsets might be stereotyped and stubborn to old tradition.Cultural continuity is maintained by skip-generation transmission.Family，a significant folk group in Confucius culture，works to tie children firmly to house chores.According to Sims and Stephens （2005），a folk group may be established because of necessity，obligation or circumstances； proximity； regular interaction； or shared interests or skills.Here in Confucius families，obligation is important bonds except for blood relationship.Familysm，which gives family every privilege，requires family members to divide labor and maximize family benefit，though it might be at the cost of personal benefit.In rural areas where lands are the major source of income，the main display of familysm is to take care of family and make lands harvest.Thus，it is common to see that little girls holding their infant sisters or brothers while cooking for the whole family，and little boys tilling lands in the countryside.Paternalism，emphasizing a strong head of family and strict hierarchy，leads leftover children to share more burden of house chore and farm work for grandparents.There is little informal initiation nowadays in Confucius culture，which marks new status or role of young people in a family.The compression，which means young people display a large amount cultural-related behavior，comes when they are old enough to help house chores and farm work.Except for household responsibility，rural children have free life style.They have little access to toys because of poverty or limited resources，so most of time they depend on themselves for fun.Their conditions are similar to Mistassini Cree children out of school.They are self-reliant，and the interpersonal relations are largely in close kinship （Sindell，1997）.Also，they are not aggressive.It is because Confucius culture requires high moral ethos to maintain social harmony，and for thousands of years Chinese peasants have been self-sufficient so they pay little attention to other people.Discontinuity，which means the management of the young peoples learning from a supportive and easy condition to a harsh and difficult one，begins when they enter school （Spindler，1997）.Schools in rural China can hardly compare with formal education because of the poor source of teachers，teaching materials，and basic infrastructures.Those schools，following only the basic structure of formal urban education，work to enlighten rural children.Even so，rural children need considerable efforts to adapt.Rules and regulations require rural children to make no noise and seat uprightly in classroom.Moreover，they face fierce competition in schools that goes against their unaggressive nature.