Tian Yunxiu, 67, and his wife Liu Dezhen, 65, from Ximawan Township. Six children of the Tian family work outside.
Tian Donglin, 64, and his wife are by the Luo River in Xigu Town. Tian Donglin's three children leave home to work.
In Shuanglong Town, Cheng Xiaolin and two children are in the vegetable field. Cheng Xiaolin's wife works outside.
Jiao Zhoucheng, 66, is sitting by the lake near his home in Lingao Town. His three children went out to work.
In Bailiu Town, 87 year old Liu Shuzhen is near the rice field. Her husband died and her son worked outside.
My residence is not far from Beijing West Railway Station. Throughout the year, when it rains, snows and freezes, there are always migrant workers who are poorly dressed and carrying large and small "belongings" on their way. The older of them have become grandfathers, and the younger have just stepped out of school. In the station, someone left and someone came. Looking at them, I also asked myself: Why did they leave their homes and come to the city? How are they doing in the city? What is the final destination? I decided to go to Shaanxi to see the hometown of these labor forces and understand their families.
It is located in the south of Shaanxi in the Qinling Mountains. The living habits of people here are similar to those in Sichuan. Going out to work is a trend in rural areas.
In southern Shaanxi, some mountain village families, almost all of them moved to cities. In some villages, only a few families remain. In the words of local people, "those who have the ability have gone to work in the city".
Over the years, the wave of migrant workers has been eroding the traditional production and living structure of "men farming and women weaving" in rural areas.
The process of "immigration" is also gradually modeled: a family, the husband goes out to work, leaving parents, wives and children. When children grow up, they go to school or leave the countryside for work. The wife was alone at home, farming and supporting the elderly. She encountered many difficulties, and then followed her husband to the city.
Finally, the old people and crops were left in the countryside.
However, not all families entering the city can live a prosperous life.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the average monthly income of 230 million migrant workers nationwide in 2009 was 1417 yuan.
Migrant workers who work in cities have several destinations: some earn slightly more than farming at home, and they go home once or twice a year to reunite with their families; Some go home empty handed and change places in the coming year because of poor factory efficiency or employers' arrears of wages; Some families moved to the city and lived in the junction of urban and rural areas or in the simple houses in the city, living a long-term sojourn life; Some saved enough money to return to the countryside to become individual small businesses; A few people become rich economically and become urban residents; There are also a few people who are unable to continue working due to injury and illness and return to the countryside to recuperate for the elderly.
In Shuanglong Town, Xunyang County, Ankang City, Shaanxi Province, the wife of farmer Cheng Xiaolin went to work in a shoe factory in Liaoning Province in March this year. As a result, the factory closed down and could not pay her wages. The wife returned to the village one day before the Mid Autumn Festival, but she had no money to bring a new dress and a bag of sugar to the children she had not seen for six months.
According to the statistics of the All China Women's Federation, there are about 58 million left behind children in rural areas and more than 50 million left behind women. According to the data of the National Office for the Aged, the number of rural left behind elderly also reached 40 million.
This large group of left behind people live in poverty, the elderly lack care, the husband and wife do not meet, and their children grow lovesick. However, migrant workers from these families who go out into the city cannot really integrate into the city, but live in a narrow area related to their work, living a "soft isolation" life that is isolated from the city and thousands of miles away from home.
Low income, poverty, emotional alienation, support for the elderly, children's education, women's rights and interests and many other costs in China's urbanization and modernization process are borne by the "hollow family".
Picture/Liu Jie, reporter of Xinhua News Agency
