Poll: migrant kids need help to integrate into city

THOUGH 90 percent migrant kids feel happy about their new life in Shanghai, their integration into the local community is low, according to a study released yesterday. A survey based on 500 migrant children in the city's Minhang District where many migrants live shows that most of them have limited access to the community resources and are living in shabby conditions. But these children have high expectations for the future. Nearly 70 percent of them said they wanted to become teachers or doctors or nurses after growing up. Waiters, cleaners and vendors -- the most common occupations for their parents -- are listed the last choices they can accept. Only 6.1 percent of the kids are living in their own houses and 44 percent are living in rented houses with a monthly rent below 500 yuan (US$76.0). About 61.7 percent don't have a kitchen in their houses and 38.1 percent have no private bathroom. About 40 percent of them share the same bedroom with whole family. The survey also found that migrant children had to get used to frequent moves. About 42.1 percent of them have changed places more than three times. Only 17.4 percent of families have not moved. Because they live in poor communities and move frequently, 19 percent of the surveyed children say they have no access to a library or a sports center. Some have never borrowed a single book from the library or played in a community sports center. In contrast, public parks are their favorite spots and 41.1 percent of them go to the park from time to time. "Few migrants know that museums are now free in Shanghai and they don't have time to take their children to the museums," said Han Xiaoyan, director of the Center for Studies of Adolescents and Social Work at East China Normal University, which conducted the research. Moreover, migrant children also face limits in education, which impedes their integration into the local society. The current regulation requires high school graduates to return to their hometown for the college entrance exam. About 40.5 percent! are awa re that they need to go back to their hometown for high school studies and 15.4 percent said they would not leave Shanghai after graduating from the middle school. The remainder said they had not thought about this. Because of their difficulty to integrate into Shanghai, about 27 percent said they had no intention to work in the city; another 28.4 percent said they would stay, while 44.5 percent were neutral. Minhang District has about 43,470 migrant children.

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