A group photo of migrant children in Loutang Town in suburban Shanghai taken on June 1, 2024 to celebrate the International Children's Day. Photo: Courtesy of nonprofit organization "Ningxin"

Editor's Note:

China's human rights stories are unfolding in a new era of comprehensive deepening reform and historic changes. It is a key component of China's poverty alleviation and whole-process people's democracy, a thorough reformation in judicial, medical insurance, and other key sectors related to the national economy and people's livelihoods, as well as a combination of numerous impressive and inspiring individual stories.

To be nurtured in youth, educated, secure gainful employment, receive medical care when ill, cared for in old age, have a place to live, and supported when weak... these are the concrete embodiments of human rights, demonstrating that the greatest human right is the right to the happiness of the people. 

For a long time, politicians and media outlets in a handful of countries have remained hostile and prejudicial toward China, leading to a lack of understanding among foreign audiences when it comes to the concepts and achievements of China's human rights development. But what is revealed in the daily lives of the Chinese people speaks to the most basic truth: Rights to survival and development are fundamental human rights. 

The Global Times is launching a series of articles, telling vivid stories about upholding human rights in the new era. We expect the series to become a window through which more foreign readers will understand how Chinese people recognize human rights and what efforts they have made to fight for and fully enjoy human rights in their daily lives.

Hongrun said he has two homes. One in downtown Shanghai, and the other in a small town in East China's Anhui Province.

In the memories of this 13-year-old, the small-town home seems to exist only in the summer and winter, as he typically returns there only during the annual winter and summer breaks, such as the Chinese New Year holidays. Most of the time, Hongrun resides in an old Western-style apartment in Shanghai with his migrant-worker parents.

Hongrun is one of millions of Chinese children who accompany their migrant worker parents to new locations. As the 2025 Chinese New Year approaches, railway stations and airports in many big cities across China are expected to be filled with children with suitcases, following their parents as they await their journey back to their hometowns for the annual reunion.

Being dubbed as "migratory birds," these children are a vivid microcosm of China's economic development and urbanization. Their physical and mental well-being, as well as the protection of their rights, have garnered increased attention from various sectors of Chinese society.

Integrate into new home

Migrant children in Shanghai's Jiangsu Road subdistrict visit a local tech company, on July 18, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of the subdistrict

Hongrun is known as cheerful and friendly boy in his neighborhood, maintaining good relationships with neighbors of all ages. His family has lived in Shanghai for many years. While he generally doesn't feel lonely, the departure of many of his friends from the neighborhood - other migrant children - fills him with a sense of loss. "They might have returned to their hometowns, and I will likely never hear from them again," he said.

Including Hongrun, there are approximately 255 migrant children like Hongrun living in the Jiangsu Road subdistrict, with 87 percent living in rented houses. Some of them moved to Shanghai as early as 2009, and the latest arrived in February 2024, the Global Times learned from the subdistrict.

Compared to their native peers, these migrant children are like "dandelions" drifting in the wind, with limited connections to Shanghai, said subdstrict staffer Wang Hui. "Even for a cheerful child like Hongrun, many of his relatives and friends are far away, resulting in a relatively narrow social circle here," she told the Global Times.

Wang is engaged in local child care services. From the end of 2023, her work began to include support for migrant children, which involves organizing activities, to help them integrate into Shanghai and the residential community. "We have found that what migrant children need most is actually quite simple: The opportunity to make friends and play with them," she said.

The Jiangsu Road subdistrict has therefore organized many non-profit events that connect migrant children with local kids, helping them better integrate into the community. Hongrun is a regular participant. "I may not remember the details of every event, but I do recall that many of them were a lot of fun," he said.

Helping migrant children integrate into the city requires multifaceted efforts. Due to the possible incomplete coverage of resources for the non-registered population, and information gaps, migrant children may face challenges in accessing essential public services such as education, healthcare, and social welfare, Bao Leiping, a research fellow and deputy director at the Institute of Sociology, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.

To bridge this information gap and better understand the needs of migrant children and their families, staffers at Jiangsu Road Subdistrict conducted nearly 300 phone and home visits in 2024.

"We specifically updated them on policies related to healthcare and education, and sometimes directly assisted them," said staffer Liu Jun, who is also engaged in child care services. 

Liu shared that months ago, a migrant child at his residential community needed to upload personal information and register for kindergarten via smartphone before September, but the child's parents were not familiar with such a process. As the deadline approached, Liu and his colleagues patiently guided them through each step. "The child later smoothly enrolled in a local kindergarten," Liu told the Global Times.

Nowadays in most Chinese cities, the education and healthcare of migrant children are no longer issues. "In many places abroad, this is not fully achievable," Bao said. "The guarantee of the rights of migrant children, and the emphasis on their physical and mental well-being, showcase China's human rights protection with tangible warmth."

Nurture the inner world

Migrant children in Wenzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province attend an art therapy event, on January 24, 2021. Photo: Courtesy of Yihui Social Work Service Center

In cities like Shanghai, there is always a large influx and mobility of migrant workers. Moving to new environments with their parents who are busy making ends meet, many migrant children lack the essential companionship they need as they grow up. Their mental health and spiritual well-being deserve equal attention alongside their material needs.

Loutang Town, located in Shanghai's suburban Jiading District, is an ancient town about two hours' drive from the city center. Most of the original residents have moved to downtown areas, renting out their old houses to migrant workers at relatively low prices. Now approximately 70 percent of the people living in Loutang are migrant worker families, making the town a small gathering place for migrant children.

Peng Yifei, founder of the nonprofit organization "Ningxin," visited more than 200 migrant worker families in Loutang before the organization starting offering help. He realized that, although these migrant workers can earn enough to meet their family's basic needs, they often struggled to find time to spend with their children. "Many of the kids there were shy, reserved, and felt lonely."

For over four years, Ningxin has collaborated with the Jiading government and charitable foundations to provide regular activities for migrant children in the town, including psychological counseling, hands-on experiences, and nature education. It hosts around 170 such events each year, reaching nearly 5,000 participants in total, according to Peng.

"At first at the events, many migrant children were reluctant to talk to us and even avoided eye contact," said Peng. "But gradually, they began to open up and became livelier and more confident."

Similarly, Wenzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, a city known for its thriving trade and manufacturing industries, gathers some 260,000 migrant worker children, according to "Yilutongxing," a local nonprofit project dedicated to serving migrant children, focusing on nurturing their mental health and enriching their life knowledge and cultural experiences.

"We offer activities such as psychological counseling and art therapy, where our professional counselors try to enter the inner world of each participating migrant child," said Wang Ke, director of the Yihui Social Work Service Center, which initiated the project.

During one recent art therapy session, the children were encouraged to draw their New Year's wishes. They drew adorable pictures of chicken legs, beautiful new houses, and themselves dancing. "By expressing their wishes through art, the kids learn to pay more attention to their own thoughts, and to love themselves more," Wang told the Global Times.

Increasing love and care

The total number of children from migrant populations in China reached approximately 130 million in 2020, accounting for over 40 percent of the total child population in the country, according to Blue Book Of Migrant Children: Report On Education Development Of Migrant Children In China (2021-2022). Among them, the number of migrant children has grown to 71.09 million, doubling since 2010, the report said.

This rapidly expanding group of migrant children is a result of China's integrated urban-rural development and increased social mobility, said Bao. "Migrant workers and their families have made great contributions to urban economic development. They deserve to enjoy equal access to public services, and to live and work in peace and contentment in the cities where they reside," she told the Global Times.

At the national level, policies specifically aimed at the care and protection of migrant children have been implemented. A Chinese national action plan, jointly released by 21 government departments in August 2024, has established a fundamental checklist of services available to migrant children in their places of residence, according to the Xinhua News Agency. The plan also calls for enhanced family care and psychological support to help migrant children adapt to new environments.

With increased love and support from all sectors of society, many migrant children have come to see their new locations as true homes. In Loutang, for instance, Peng and his coworkers arranged for local migrant children to create an illustrated book about the town, capturing its old streets and historical buildings. "Some of the children later took this book back to their hometowns, proudly introducing Loutang as their second home to their friends back home," Peng said.

The Chinese New Year is just around the corner. This year, rather than returning to their hometown as before, Hongrun and his parents have chosen to spend the holidays in Shanghai.

Hongrun expressed his nostalgia for the previous New Year celebrations in his hometown, reminiscing about the sound of firecrackers on New Year's Eve in that small town, and the interesting noises of tractors in the next morning. 

"But I still prefer to stay in Shanghai," the boy said. "I feel like I belong here."

Home away from home