Online discussion puts focus on migrant children all over the country

By Liang Meilan

An online discussion hosted by the Foundation for Youth Social Entrepreneurship (FYSE) about the children of migrant workers is currently active online. It began on January 3 and will last until January 16.

FYSE’s Beijing branch formerly shared an office building with Compassionate Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC), a nonprofit organization committed to helping children of migrant workers in China and their communities through social and educational programs.

Those interested in joining the discussion should visit   socialinnovationmeetup.com. Experts will reply to all relevant postings.

Expers are from CMC and another leading NGO in the field, the Migrant Children Foundation.

FYSE is an organization dedicated to supporting young social entrepreneurs in the Asia Pacific region who want to tackle the most pressing social and environmental problems.

After hosting a social innovation Meetup on the topic of Migrant Children last year, FYSE has launched the online discussion to enable more people to join the discussion, to learn and to voice their opinion and experience.

“It is important to learn from people who might not be in Beijing and to provide them with learning opportunities,” said Andrea Krause, FYSE executive director. “People from everywhere can go online whenever they have time and contribute.”

Experts in charge of the discussion from the three organizations not only reply to the questions but also share information about their efforts in helping migrant children.

So far the discussion is centered on how to provide education for migrant children and the quality of migrant schools. Other issues include how migrant youth can be integrated into the workforce.

Jonathan Hursh, founder of CMC, said one of the interesting things he learned several years ago seemed like a paradox at first.  “The top graduates of middle school were returning to their villages, while those with lower marks stayed in the city,” he said. 

Migrant children only have one chance at entering college, and that’s through the national college entrance exam, which they can only take in the city where they’re legally registered. In other words, they have to leave Beijing to enter high school. Those who remain in the capital are forced to drop out and try to enter the workforce or attend vocational training.

The only other option is to get lost in the shuffle of society.

“Migrants have informal jobs, they get informal education, they have access to informal healthcare and they live in informal shacks on informal land,” Hursh said. “In short, they live informal lives. This is a big problem because it keeps them from accessing opportunities that reward them appropriately for the positive contributions they make in our cities.”

The discussion is not just for expats. Although so far all posts are in English, Chinese replies are accepted and will be translated.

“We welcome suggestions for further discussion topics after this one, as the plan is to organize more of these forums,” Krause said.