1Since 2013, in order to control the size of the migrant population, Shanghai has greatly raised the school entry threshold for the children of the migrant population, keeping a large number of children of the migrant population from entering school. According to statistics, by December 2015 the migrant population at the stage of compulsory education in Shanghai numbered 500,700, which is 37,900 fewer than in the same period of 2014 (Liu and Wang 2017). Where did such a large number of dropout children go? In April 2016, our research group specially organized some experts to go to Lu’an, Anhui Province, for investigation, and surveyed some places surrounding Shanghai, such as Taicang and Jiashan. We found that some children returned to their hometown or transferred to the schools in the surrounding areas for study, but the overall size was not very large. A large number of students changed their school roll to their hometown and surrounding areas but continued to stay in Shanghai and studied in private schools or illegal schools.

2The migrant children have lived in Shanghai for a long time, and a majority were even born in Shanghai. Even if they could not enter schools in Shanghai, many of them were unable to return to their hometowns for study. After some of them returned to their hometowns, the local education system and social support system could hardly receive them effectively in such a short period of time, leading to frequent accidents related to stay-at-home children, which aroused widespread social concern. Some students were no longer used to living and studying in their hometown, and many had to return to Shanghai. According to data from the Actual Population Information System of the Shanghai Population Office and the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, among the reduced 37,900 students in 2015, only 17,000 left Shanghai to study in their hometowns or in the surrounding areas, while 20,900 students stayed in private schools in Shanghai or temporarily studied in illegal schools.

3In this case, in order to better achieve the goal of population control in the mega-cities, other than blocking the inlet channel into Shanghai, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation with the education departments of places of departure and surrounding provinces, and form a guidance mechanism. On the one hand, this can reduce the pressure on Shanghai; on the other hand, it can also reduce social turbulence caused by sudden policies and the reduction of social contradictions.

4To better study this problem, a practical operation was adopted to explore the new mechanism for solving the education problems of migrant children with the regional coordination of the Yangtze River Delta. Based on the team of experts who have long been engaged in the education of migrant children in the School of Sociology and Political Science at Shanghai University, together with the Professional Committee of Migrant Children Education of Shanghai Private Schools Association, the Shanghai United Foundation, and other institutions, they explored how to coordinate and integrate the educational resources of Shanghai, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang Provinces so as to form a joint effort to settle the education problem of migrant children. Relying on the Shanghai United Foundation and taking the 29 social organizations in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta area funded by this foundation, this paper discusses the new approaches of strengthening migrant children’s education at the community level through social organizations, with the aim of making up for the shortage of social organizations in family education and school education for migrant children. The case in this article is about one of the largest of the 29 service organizations.

Education Problems of Migrant Children: Dilemma of Mobility

5The migrant children, due to their characteristics of cross-border mobility, faced a series of difficulties in access to education (Liu 2015), including the problem of capital weakness caused by their parents’ low levels of human capital, economic capital, and social capital; the problem of cross-border governance caused by cross-regional mobility; difficulties in integrating into local society (Wang 2016); and the “high mobility” problem caused by the relatively strong mobility.

6First of all, the families of floating children are among the most economically and socially disadvantaged social groups. Parents of floating children have low incomes, a low average level of education, and weak ties to the local population. Floating children face a host of disadvantages in terms of economic, human, and social capital, hampering their access to educational opportunities. In the context of population migration and mobility, the differentiation of traditional urban and rural education has transformed into inequality between migrant children and local children, and has fallen into a new “education poverty” reproduction trap (Zhang 2017).

7Second, because of the cross-border mobility that characterizes floating children, the services and administrations targeting this population are immediately confronted with the difficulty of “trans-regional” cooperation (Ji 2012). The relevant responsible subjects calculate their own interests, which leads to the “hitchhiking” dilemma of “sweeping the snow before each other” (Lockwood 2002). Especially under the system of the concentration of power in China, with its emphasis on vertical management and execution, underestimating horizontal cooperation and coordination, the education of migrant children often faces the dilemma of “passing the buck” between the places of departure and arrival of the country (Wang 2020). In the society of the place of arrival, the stigmatization of the floating population is very serious; they and their parents are often regarded as the object of governance, and they often face great difficulty integrating with the local society. Moreover, to solve the education problem of migrant children, the cooperation between market, government, and society is indispensable, but it will also face the dilemma of mutual exclusion between government and market, mutual exclusion between enterprise and public welfare, which causes difficulties to cross-border cooperation.

8Third, because the floating population often circulates between the place of departure and the place of arrival, and the employment and the living place also lack assurance, floating population members often move in the place of arrival. The migrant child has to follow their parents to move between the working place and hometown frequently. This not only causes great difficulty for the education provider, but it also forms a great challenge for migrant children themselves.

Market Failure and Government Failure in the Supply of Education for Migrant Children

9In the early years, the education of migrant children mainly depended on the market, where a group of educational institutions set by some people running schools could spontaneously solve the problem. Most of these institutions are in relatively poor condition. Many of them borrow abandoned industrial buildings or temporary houses and have poor conditions and mostly unqualified teachers. For these school operators, due to the lack of government and third-party supervision, price wars and competitions for students commonly take place, and the short-term behavior of the school operators is common, bringing about many hidden dangers. Around 2000, the “nine-year compulsory education” met the standard, and education became a public good. The State Council and the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China also issued documents setting clear guidelines on “relying on the two major forces” in school operations, i.e. taking the government of the place of arrival and public schools as the major forces for migrant children (Han 2017). In this case, the interference of market forces in migrant children’s education was restricted in many aspects, and the phenomenon of market failure was becoming increasingly serious.

10For the local government, before the introduction of the “two major forces” policy, the compulsory education of migrant children was in the charge of the government of the place of departure, including the local government being assigned the task of “meeting the standard of nine-year compulsory education.” However, these children followed their parents on a long-term basis in the place of arrival. Therefore, although the government of the place of departure has the obligation to educate migrant children, its conditions are insufficient; on the contrary, the government of the place of arrival has conditions, but that is not its obligation. Thus results the phenomenon of “neglect by both sides.” After the introduction of the policy of “relying on the two major forces,” although the local government began to gradually intervene in the education of migrant children, because of the tournament system (Zhou 2007), the local government is more focused on the management of migrant children, and the provision of public services has had insufficient momentum. Moreover, due to the high mobility of the migrant children, there is always the unclear definition of responsibilities and the “depression effect” between the place of departure and the place of arrival, and it is always difficult for the government of the place of arrival to provide good education for the migrant children. The phenomenon of government failure is very obvious.

11Under the background of government failure and market failure, social organizations, which are non-governmental, non-profit, pro–public welfare, and voluntary, have gained space for development and growth (Wang and Liu 2007), and as the third sector, they have become an indispensable force in providing public services and improving public welfare. For the education of migrant children, in this process, social organizations as the “third sector” have played an important role in promoting the education of migrant children to achieve “identical treatment” against the background of relevant policies to be improved and weakened optimization market forces. With the convenience of public welfare identity, such organizations have mobilized and absorbed a large number of non-governmental resources (capital, manpower, and material objects) into the educational services of migrant children, and they have become the backbone of improving the welfare of vulnerable groups and participating in social governance. To some extent, they have made up for the supply of local governments and markets, especially in solving the problem of cross-regional collaboration and dealing with the high mobility of migrant children. The social organization introduced in this case is one of the earliest social organizations that served migrant children in Shanghai. It is also the largest social organization serving migrant children in Shanghai at present.

Main Functions of Social Organization

12Limited by disadvantages in family capital, as well as the problems of cross-regional cooperation and high mobility, the education of migrant children faces many difficulties. so that market forces and government forces are faced with various kinds of difficulties in the process of intervening in public service provision and governance. Insufficient supply has been a constant problem. The extensive and in-depth involvement of social organizations has not only played the role of “supplementing” to a certain extent, but it has also played a great role in overcoming cross-border cooperation problems in the field of education for migrant children.

13First, social organizations perform the function of “filling in the gaps.” In the field of education of migrant children, because of its “low-capital” characteristics, the intervention of market forces is often far from enough. After the government’s intervention, involved with the cooperation between the government of places of departure and places of arrival, and the division and cooperation between the central government and the local government, there is often the phenomenon of a “double absence” between the government and the market. In this case, by giving full play to the social organization’s “public wealth” property and “flexibility,” the role of “filling in the gaps” would be given full play too.

14Second, social organizations fulfill the function of educational innovation. How to implement high-quality education? In the survey of social organizations, we see that many social organizations have made many attempts and innovations in terms of finance and business education, art education, sex education, and reading education, and many of their products are not only welcomed by educational institutions for migrant children, but are also popular in many high-end private schools and public schools with rich educational resources. To give full play to the educational innovation function of these social organizations is very important not only to solve the problem of education for migrant children, but also for innovation in the whole educational field.

15Third, the flexibility of social organizations is an advantage in cross-border cooperation. Many problems of migrant children are caused by “cross-border” characteristics and “high mobility,” and in this respect, increasing the input of local governments and strengthening the supervision and responsibility of local governments sometimes has the opposite effect under the existing governance system characterized by “residence management,” causing a huge waste of social resources to a great extent. Under such circumstances, giving full play to the flexibility of social organizations and the advantages of cross-border cooperation can make up for the natural shortcomings in this field.