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Return migration and educational investments in children in China: Hukou differences and the role of parental coresidence

Xinyue Wu & Mariana Amorim

Demographic Research2026https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2026.54.20article
ABDC A
Weight
0.50

Abstract

BACKGROUNDReturned children relocate to their original hukou locations after migration, often due to systemic barriers.China's hukou system, which assigns rural or urban status, imposes institutional hurdles to those with non-local and rural hukou, resulting in educational exclusion and eventual return.Despite their non-negligible presence, these children remain hard to identify in surveys and overlooked in research on hukou-perpetuated educational inequities. OBJECTIVEThis study examines how children's return migration influences household monetary and time investments in their education.It also investigates how the association between return migration and educational investments varies by hukou status and whether it is moderated or mediated by parental coresidence. METHODSUsing data from the 2013-2014 China Education Panel Survey, this study applies inverse probability of treatment weighting with linear logged regression and logistic regression models.Karlson-Holm-Breen decomposition is used to test the mediating role of changes in parental coresidence on investment outcomes. RESULTSReturn migration is associated with a decline in the probability of investments in out-ofschool education (e.g., extracurricular programs and private tutoring), particularly among families with rural hukou.The likelihood of quality time falls, but among households that do invest time, primary caregivers devote more time, consistent with the substitution of time for money under constraint.The absence of parental figures mediates a substantial share of the reduction in the probability of monetary participation in out-of-school education.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2026.54.20

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@article{xinyue2026,
  title        = {{Return migration and educational investments in children in China: Hukou differences and the role of parental coresidence}},
  author       = {Xinyue Wu & Mariana Amorim},
  journal      = {Demographic Research},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4054/demres.2026.54.20},
}

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R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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