Institutional Barriers, Educational Decisions, and the Forging of Migrant Social Identity: Evidence from China’s Cross-Regional Enrollment Policies

The social identity of migrant children is not merely a demographic label but is actively constructed and constrained by institutional structures. In China, a rapidly growing migrant population faces stringent institutional barriers, namely cross-regional enrollment policies with restrictive eligibility conditions, which exclude migrant children from local high school education. This study investigates how these structural factors shape the educational decisions and, consequently, the social identity formation of migrant children. Using data from the China Migrants Dynamic Survey and a cohort-based difference-in-differences (DID) approach, we employ an innovative strategy to identify students’ high school enrollment locations by leveraging information on migration timing and birth cohorts. Our findings reveal that strict institutional barriers significantly reduce the likelihood of high school attendance in destination areas, forcing families into a critical trade-off between children’s educational opportunities and family co-residence, which serves as a key site where migrant identity is negotiated. Residence requirements and school-type restrictions emerge as the most binding constraints. Importantly, these policies reinforce the role of household economic capital in accessing education while only partially mitigating disparities linked to cultural capital, suggesting a stratified reproduction of migrant social identities. Mechanism analysis indicates that early co-migration of children serves as a key behavioral channel, illustrating how structural barriers reshape family strategies. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that the educational decisions of migrant families are strongly constrained by institutional arrangements, which in turn shape the salience, meaning, and developmental trajectory of their migrant social identity. Reducing access thresholds and providing more flexible pathways are essential for fostering more equitable identity outcomes.