Internal migration refers to human movement within a geopolitical unity, a phenomenon found in many regions such as Europe, the US, and China [
1,
2]. Recently, migration has drawn attention from policymakers due to its magnitude and composition. A typical example is the EU, a supra-national entity comprising 28 member states. Unlike migration in the general sense, which imposes multiple conditions, like a visa, the EU places no restrictions on population movement across its internal borders. Thus, free movement between EU member states, though essentially an inter-state movement, can be more properly defined as “internal migration”. However, internal migration is not unique instance in EU, but has its counterpart. China, the biggest growing entity, comprises 34 provinces and sees a huge amount of labour migration. The government’s launch of reforms and the opening up policy in 1978 spurred large-scale migration. The introduction of a market economy made of China a large trading nation with a dynamic internal market and cheap labour. Huge waves of rural manpower flowed to urban areas which needed more labour for urban development. The number of internal migrants has increased continuously to the present.
Income and living standards affect the flow of population between EU member states. For instance, many people from Poland, Hungary, and Ireland move to Britain for better work and educational opportunities [
3]. However, there is a scarcity of information about migrants in the EU [
4]. Research on internal migration in China is more extensive compared to EU. In 2010, there were 221 million migrant workers in China, three-quarters of them rural–urban migrant workers. They are typically portrayed as poor and uneducated. Massive movement from rural to urban areas not only brings labourers out of the countryside, but also contributes to economic growth in destination areas. It is estimated that migrant workers have contributed 16 % of GDP growth in China in the last three decades, though the occupations open to migrant workers have been limited to specific sectors shunned by urban residents, for example, construction, domestic work, and cleaning work [
5]. As more and more migrant workers obtained relatively stable jobs, they had their own families and many raised children in the cities. According to the 2000 census, 64 % of the heads of migrant families migrated with their spouses, and 61 % of migrant workers lived with their children in urban areas [
6]. Migrant parents expect their children to be able to access better educational and developmental resources in urban areas so that they can improve their quality of life. However, the household registration system (
hukou) still enforces restrictions on residential housing and income limiting rural–urban migrants’ access to education, housing, and health care [
7]. The problems experienced by migrant families have drawn much attention as they have a huge impact on China’s social stability and social policies. This paper will therefore focus on internal migration after 1979, since it is only after that point that migration became a significant issue.
Migrant children in international and Chinese contexts
The biggest concern for policy makers is that low-skilled workers are more likely than the average local individual to face health risks and less likely to utilize health services [
8,
9]. Although most studies focus on adult migrants, the health and well-being of migrant children are very vulnerable to many threats. Migrant children may have greater difficulties with separation from family, disruption of education, and adaptation to new environments, and they are at greatest risk of having limited access to justice, education, and health care [
10]. Migrant children present higher rates of underachievement and early drop-out at school, and also demonstrate more health problems than urban counterparts [
11,
12]. Migrant children’s disadvantageous outcomes are mainly related to social and economic issues, for instance, service provision in host countries, socioeconomic status, age, and lack of social support [
11,
13]. Notwithstanding, migration on such a large scale poses many challenges to social and economic development of China.
Internal migrant children in China have been also studied more extensively than migrant children in the EU. By 2010, there were about 36 million migrant children living with their parent(s) in urban areas, which indicates that one in eight Chinese children was a migrant [
6]. In many migration destinations, such as Shanghai and Zhejiang, almost 50 % of children were from migrant families by 2010 [
6]. However, local government restricted the provision of public services to people with local
hukou only, which rules out all rural–urban migrants and their children. This poses challenges for current policies and social structure, which have a significant effect on social stability. In addition, as in the EU, migrant children in China experience stress caused by separation from family, disruption of education, and difficulties in adjusting to new social, cultural, and economic circumstances. Therefore, China can be considered a good laboratory for research on migrant children. Studying Chinese migrant children and families will improve our understanding of the global impacts of migration. A final important point is that migrant children contribute to the birth rate of their destination, and will be potential sources of labour in the near future. Therefore, policies and reforms are necessary to protect the development of migrant children, which will have implications in the global context.
Rural–urban migrant children have limited access to public services, such as education and health care, due to lack of urban
hukou. Take school attendance as an example: in China, every citizen must complete 9 years of schooling, including 6 years of primary school education and 3 years of junior high school education. Children living in a place where their hukou registered are guaranteed to attend publically funded schools (public school) for the 9-year compulsory education, which is supported by local government. However, the right to accessing public education cannot mobile as people migrate because the financial support does not transfer between local governments. Regulations stipulate that public schools of host areas act as the main providers of compulsory education for migrant children; however, local government has not made on-the-ground improvements. Public schools set higher fees or entrance exams for migrant children, thereby denying them access to quality education [
14]. Migrant schools specifically refer to schools open for children of migrant workers, privately run by migrant workers and charging lower fees. They were established as self-help mechanisms to meet the educational demands of migrant children. Social media and scholars are concerned about the poor sanitation, poor infrastructure, unqualified teachers, and unprofessional management of migrant schools; furthermore, migrant children are often criticized for academic failure and psychological and behavioural problems. Lack of access to public services not only affects migrant children’s school experience, it also puts their health and development at risk [
15,
16]. On the one hand, poor living and learning conditions are harmful for child development. On the other hand, migrant children cannot access appropriate health education and prevention programmes in migrant schools. Public schools provide health education courses and regular examination services to students, thus delivering appropriate health education, information, and prevention. Migrant children are therefore at higher risk of health problems due to substandard living and school conditions.
Children are a very vulnerable population in the migration process. Evidence from other countries proves that migrant children lack legal, socioeconomic, and financial status [
17]. There are a handful of literature reviews and systematic reviews of migrant children’s development in the international context. According to a literature reviews conducted by Chan and colleagues [
17], children migrating to western countries meet with cultural and language barriers and limited health care services. For instance, most children migrating from less-developed countries to developed countries face problems like incomplete immunization and poor nutrition, physical violence, psychological depression, and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [
18‐
20]. Further, children are highly likely to internalize that psychological depression and express it in problematic behaviours [
21,
22]. Therefore, migrant children experiencing physical and social stressors are more likely to have mental health problems.
However, few comprehensive reviews have been conducted on the physical and mental health outcomes of migrant children in Mainland China. According to a review conducted by Zhang [
23], Chinese scholars mainly used specialized mental health instruments to measure the psychological well-being of migrant children. Some scholars also use single item like social adaptation and loneliness. As reported in a systematic review conducted by Mou [
24] and his colleagues, scholars have compared test results between migrant children and urban children and generally found that migrant children present higher rates of psychological disorder symptoms. However, this systematic review has two limitations. First, it fails to take a neutral standpoint, only including studies showing that migrant children were disadvantaged in health outcomes. Second, it fails to point out the heterogeneity of migrant children, that is migrant children in migrant children and those in public school are not identical. In addition, researchers have identified correlates of children’s psychological well-being from the level of family, to school and society, for instance, family resources, parenting, migration, interpersonal relationships,
hukou, and distribution of public resources [
25,
26]. Scholars have acknowledged that the factors mentioned above influence not only the mental health of migrant children, but also their physical health and educational outcomes. However, there is a lack of statistical synthesis of migrant children’s developmental outcomes and their relationships with individual and social factors.
In this study, we conducted a meta-analysis of the effects of parental migration on child development in studies conducted between 1979 and 2015. We address four major questions: 1) Are migrant children at higher risk of physical health problems compared to their urban counterparts? 2) Do migrant children have more mental health problems than their urban counterparts? 3) Does public school attendance play a protective role for the well-being of migrant children? 4) What are the protective/risk factors of mental health outcomes for all migrant children regardless of the school type?