The Effect of Parental Migration on Children: The Case of China

Abstract

This thesis set out to study domestic migration and child development in China and focuses on the parental migration effect on children. The migration effect is observed from two locations, the destination location where parents and children migrate together, and the source location where parents work away and children are left behind. Children’s education and health outcomes are investigated under different parental migration effects. The empirical strategy is using IV estimations. Chapter 1 introduces the research on migration and overviews the thesis. Chapter 2 studies children’s test performance at the destination location and finds that migrant children perform weakly relative to local children, and the adaptation costs of the migrants do not fall over time to make any positive impact. Chapter 3 traces back to the source location and studies children’s educational outcomes. We find that migration, though intended to improve the households’ income and welfare, does inflict short-run costs on the household, some of which are reflected on the child’s education. Chapter 4 examines children’s health outcomes from physical, mental, and general perspectives at the source location. The results suggest that left-behind children are likely to be malnutrition due to the poor economic condition; they also mentally suffer the separation and limited contacts with parents and tend to report themselves as not healthy. Chapter 5 concludes and makes policy recommendations in corresponding with all problems found in our empirical studies of parental migration.