Abstract: The large-scale aggregation of migrants in metropolitan cities results in housing segregation, and could increase the difficulty of solving the education problem of children of migrant workers. Findings from an empirical study in Shanghai suggest that the living condition and housing segregation of migrant communities has a negative impact on children’s social integration and self-identification. The increasing cost and decreasing gains of education result in a new spread of the doctrine that “knowledge is useless.” There is a “lowland effect” on the distribution of urban education resources and a structural imbalance between supply and demand of education resources for children of migrant workers. It is essential to create a new policy system of migrant management based on the concept of “integration” through institutional innovation so as to reallocate public resources such as compulsory education more efficiently and more reasonably.

Key words: migrant, migrant community, education of migrant workers&rsquo, children, management innovation, Shanghai