Kam Wing Chan Sheds Light on Trends Regarding Children of Migrants in China
Posted: 10/26/2018 (CSDE Research)
“Children – including those of migrants – are China’s future.” CSDE Affiliate Kam Wing Chan, Geography Professor at UW, investigates the trends, living arrangements, age-gender structure and geography of children of migrants in China, which now make up almost 40% of all children in the country. By distilling 2000-2016 data from multiple large national surveys and assessing the small rural left-behind children population figures, his recent paper analyzes the major aspects of children of migrants.
The authors develop a method to estimate the left-behind children population generated by migrants in each provincial destination, linking up adult migrants, migrant children, and left-behind children in the origins and destinations. This framework allows them to pinpoint a major driver of left-behind children and hence to identify provinces needing the most attention in national and provincial efforts to alleviate the problem of left-behind children.