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Geographic Origin and Social Class as “Geoclass” and the Education of Migrant Children in China 1980–2013

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Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys

Part of the book series: Geographies of Children and Young People ((GCYP,volume 6))

Abstract

In 2011 over 260 of Chinar’s 1.3 billion population were migrants. These migrants moved to the cities to seek a better life for themselves and for their children. Since education is generally the key to upward mobility, this chapter examines the educational experiences of the 35 million migrant children to project how likely it is the parents’ dreams for them can be realized. The analysis borrows from M. Gordonrsquo;s integration of the concept of ethnicity and social class into “ethclassrdquo; (1964) to coin the term geoclass to examine the conjoint impact of geographic origin and social class on the education of the migrant children; and borrows from P. Bourdieu’s concepts of economic, cultural, and social capital (1986) to trace how geoclass affects their educational experiences. It finds that the migrant children’s characteristics emanating from their geoclass are incompatible with school demands. The children’s economic, social and cultural characteristics are not capital to help them take advantage of what schools have to offer; instead they can be liabilities that bar them from accessing public education, confine them to academically inferior migrant schools, and for those admitted into the public system single them out as targets of discrimination. These school experiences hold them back in learning, put them at a disadvantage to move to the next level of education and make it unlikely that their parents’ dream for them to escape poverty can be fulfilled.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Arts, University of Manitoba, 66 Chancellors Cir, R3T 2N2, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Julia Kwong

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  1. Julia Kwong
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Correspondence to Julia Kwong .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Social Studies, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Caitriona Ni Laoire

  2. College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    Allen White

  3. Department of Geography, National University of Singapore , Singapore, Singapore

    Tracey Skelton

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Kwong, J. (2017). Geographic Origin and Social Class as “Geoclass” and the Education of Migrant Children in China 1980–2013. In: Ni Laoire, C., White, A., Skelton, T. (eds) Movement, Mobilities, and Journeys. Geographies of Children and Young People, vol 6. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-029-2_13

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