Li Bing has lived in Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang Province, for around two years, yet has always felt lonely despite his good performance at school.

As a child of a migrant worker, Li moved to Hangzhou with his parents two years ago from his hometown in Jiangsu Province.

"I could not understand the local dialect when I first arrived. I felt like I was constantly being looked down upon," said Li, 12, who left his home village in Jiangxi Province to study in Hangzhou.

Li is not alone.

Around 60 per cent of migrant children in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou feel they are being discriminated against by the locals. About a quarter of them do not even intend to make friends with city children, a survey shows.

When faced with loneliness and depression, most migrant children in public schools choose to either express their emotions in their diaries or hide their feelings, not talking about their feelings with their teachers or classmates.

The findings came out of a survey of close to 900 school children from three primary and middle schools. The survey specifically targeted migrant children from two public schools in Xiaoshan District of Hangzhou. It was commissioned to determine the psychological condition of the students.

"We aim to find out migrant children's feelings and thoughts on urban life," said Zhu Yuqin, chief organizer of the survey.

So far, results have shown that most students from migrant families are not ready to integrate themselves into urban life.

For example, about 80 per cent of students said they want to return to their hometowns to find jobs. They also cited missing their relatives and friends as a reason to return.

Some migrant students said they study hard to obtain good results to surpass local students and be treated equally by teachers and classmates.

Their concerns differ greatly from city students, who are mainly worried about poor exam results and general school pressures. On the other hand, migrant students tend to worry about their parents' welfare, saying they work too hard.

(China Daily January 27, 2005)