Leaving children behind: a win-win household strategy or a path to pauperization?

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Abstract
There has been a scholarly debate on the impact of cityward labor migration on the children left behind in rural China. The present article explains why the attempt by some scholars to normalize the separation of parent and child as a “win-win” household strategy is problematic. Based on scholarly insights into China’s rural–urban dual system, this article clarifies that the emergence of left-behind children in rural China is one of the direct consequences of the dual system imposed upon migrant parents instead of a “voluntary” choice by them. This article contends that even though many rural households benefit from incomes generated through parental migration for the time being, constrained by the dual system, the cost of their children’s lack of secure parent–child bonding, low-quality education, kinship care, and rampant delinquency will eventually outstrip that economic gain in the long run. In particular, in an era that requires ever-updating knowledge and skills, poorly educated left-behind children are likely trapped in the lowest rung of society’s ladder and, therefore, are prone to continue on the path to pauperization.

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