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Left-behind children in China

Children running in a wheat field in Datong County, Qinghai.

In China, "left-behind children" (simplified Chinese: 留守儿童; traditional Chinese: 留守兒童; pinyin: liúshǒu'értóng), also called "stay-at-home children", are children who remain in rural regions of the country while their parents leave to work in urban areas. In many cases, these children are taken care of by their extended families, usually by grandparents or family friends, who remain in the rural regions.[1][2][3]

Before the 2000s, few mothers questioned the caregiving practice of leaving children in the care of older relatives while they migrated for work prospects.[4]: 150–151  According to the UNICEF 2018 Annual Report, there are approximately 69 million children left behind by one or both of their parents due to migration, which is equivalent to thirty percent of the children in rural areas.[5] The number of left behind children is unevenly distributed across age groups, regions, and gender. The majority of the left-behind children population is located in south and central regions of China. Six south and central provinces, including Sichuan, Anhui, Henan, Guangdong, Hunan, and Jiangxi, take up 52% of the left-behind child population.[6]

Many factors contribute to the increase of left-behind children in China. Internal migration, which mainly involves massive economically-driven population shifts from the rural areas to the cities in China, produces a large population of left-behind children and migrant children. China's Hukou system (Chinese Household Registration System) hampers left-behind children's chances of public school enrollment in cities. In some cities where a school enrollment point system are implemented, educational resources in urban areas are not readily accessible to migrants and left-behind children. As a result of the lack of educational resources, many migrant parents left their children at home.[7][8]

The physical and mental wellbeing of the left-behind children has become one increasing concern for researchers and Chinese government. Some researchers found that the remittance from migrant parents has a positive impact on children's education and human capital.[9] Many of these children face developmental and emotional challenges as a result of the limited interaction with their biological parents.[10][11] The lack of infrastructure and parental support have led to additional challenges for left-behind children including quality education, physical well-being, and healthy social relationships.[3] Left-behind children are the victims of the longstanding intergenerational reproduction of social inequality.[12]

  1. ^ Lijia Zhang, One in 60 million: Life as a 'left-behind' child in China, 21 January 2018. Retrieved 17 November 2018 from
  2. ^ John Sudworth, Counting the cost of China’s left-behind children," BBC News, 12 April 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2018
  3. ^ a b Zhao, Ke-Fu; Su, Hong; He, Li; Wu, Jia-Ling; Chen, Ming-Chun; Ye, Dong-Qing (September 2009). "Self-concept and mental health status of 'stay-at-home' children in rural China". Acta Paediatrica. 98 (9): 1483–1486. doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2009.01346.x. PMID 19549275. S2CID 205860514.
  4. ^ Santos, Gonçalo (2021). Chinese Village Life Today: Building Families in an Age of Transition. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-74738-5.
  5. ^ "UNICEF China 2018 Annual Report" (PDF). UNICEF. 2019.
  6. ^ Nong cun liu shou liu dong er tong zhuang kuang diao cha bao gao = Research report on left behind and migrant children. Zhonghua quan guo fu nü lian he hui. Er tong gong zuo bu., 中华全国妇女联合会. 儿童工作部. (Di 1 ban ed.). Beijing: She hui ke xue wen xian chu ban she. 2011. ISBN 978-7-5097-2217-6. OCLC 714567161.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^ Mu, Guanglun Michael (2016-11-25). Living with vulnerabilities and opportunities in a migration context : floating children and left-behind children in China. Hu, Yang. Rotterdam. ISBN 978-94-6300-785-6. OCLC 966556787.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  8. ^ China Development Brief, “Report discusses challenges in educating migrant and left-behind children”, 30 Mar 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2018
  9. ^ Quisumbing, Agnes; McNiven, Scott (January 2010). "Moving Forward, Looking Back: the Impact of Migration and Remittances on Assets, Consumption, and Credit Constraints in the Rural Philippines". Journal of Development Studies. 46 (1): 91–113. doi:10.1080/00220380903197960. ISSN 0022-0388. S2CID 154579776.
  10. ^ Xu Wei and Wang Xiaodong, A child's life of fear, insecurity and misery," China Daily, 18 June 2015. Retrieved 18 November 2018
  11. ^ Luo, J.; Wang, W.; Gao, W. (2009). "Review of the studies on rural left-behind children in China". Advances in Psychological Science. 17: 990–995.
  12. ^ Feng, Qundi; He, Qinying (2022-10-01). "Does parental migration increase upward intergenerational mobility? Evidence from rural China". Economic Modelling. 115: 105955. doi:10.1016/j.econmod.2022.105955. ISSN 0264-9993.

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