Our reporter Liu Xu
Reading tips
Older migrant workers who have worked in cities for 30 to 40 years are facing or are about to face the choice of where to provide for the elderly. County towns are more developed than the villages in commerce, with complete living service facilities, and there is no high consumption level and living pressure in cities. More old migrant workers have new options for providing for the elderly.
The 56-year-old Zhao Yue'e has been a little unable to do anything recently. In the morning, the cellphone alarm called her to wake up, and at noon she could fall asleep after eating half of her steamed buns.
She was doing house-to-house cleaning in Shenyang. By November this year, it was exactly 35 years.
According to the "Migrant Workers Monitoring Survey Report 2020" released by the National Bureau of Statistics, there are 68.544 million migrant workers over 50 years old like Zhao Yuee.
"There are old people at the top, and young people at the bottom." At the age when they cannot earn money by working on their own, older migrant workers who have worked in the city for 30 to 40 years are facing or about to face the problem of choice: whether to go to the city to provide for the elderly or to return to the hometown for the elderly. ?
Can’t adapt to the countryside and can’t live in the city
Zhao Yue'e had planned long ago, and when she was 58 years old, she would return to her hometown in Chaoyang, Liaoning, because she still had an 82-year-old mother and a 64-year-old cousin in the village.
Zhao Yue'e, whose father passed away early, moved to the city to work in her 20s, hoping to be filial and filial again during her mother's lifetime.
The air in the village is good, and the appearance of the village has changed drastically in recent years. Every village has roads and networks.
The house is spacious and the neighbors are familiar with it. Raising some chickens and ducks in the compound and planting some vegetables can also guarantee the most basic life.
And the cost of living in the city is high, and Zhao Yuee is unwilling to burden her daughter.
"A small house in the suburbs of 8,000 yuan per square meter can also be bought, but life after the purchase has to be considered." Chen Yong, 63, from rural Tieling, Liaoning, once sold vegetables at a farmer’s market in Tiexi District, Shenyang, Liaoning. The living income and expenditure accounts are "smooth", and the two sons have already married and set up a business, and sometimes they can give themselves pocket money.
The old couple has worked hard for many years, saved nearly 500,000 yuan in savings in their entire life, and can receive the new rural cooperative insurance pension every month.
The problems of daily living expenses, medical expenses, and high pressure in life make the old couple choose to go back to their hometown.
"Who doesn't want to provide for the elderly in a city where he has lived for half his life, but his son also needs to support his family, staying in the city forever, the burden on his children is too heavy." Chen Yong said.
When the new crown epidemic broke out, Zhao Yuee decided to “retire” early, but he did not expect that life in the village would be more “hard”.
Zhao Yuee, who has bid farewell to the land for more than 30 years, has basically never done farm work. Cleaning up the feces in the chicken coop can’t straighten her waist. The cucumber seedlings are watered too much and the leaves turn yellow. It took half a month to repair the leaking windows..." The cabinet is too tired, and I have to do all my own affairs, and some things are still not well done." Zhao Yuee said.
The days without mobile phone data are the most difficult, and the mother goes to bed earlier, Zhao Yuee feels lonely than the days in the city.
The epidemic was effectively prevented and controlled this year, and she returned to Shenyang to start cleaning.
"Keep household registration and provide for the aged in both places" has become a new choice
At 18:00 on September 25, the street lights were on, the music sounded, and the aunts who danced in the square gathered in the small square.
Cai Wenying, 65, is one of them. In 2019, she transferred the land use rights of four acres of land and bought a 78 square meter two-bedroom apartment in a high-end community in Gobangzi Town, Jinzhou City, Liaoning, for a total cost of 270,000 yuan. .
In terms of medical treatment, chronic diseases such as hypertension and cervical spondylosis can be treated and prescribed in the hospital in the town. Even if there is a serious illness, it is only more than 70 kilometers away from Jinzhou City, and it is not difficult to go to the city to see a doctor.
Li Caiyou, general manager of honest real estate agency in Liaozhong District, Shenyang, Liaoning (formerly Liaozhong County), also feels the same.
According to him, Liaozhong District governs 163 administrative villages, and their main clients are elderly migrant workers with registered permanent residence in the village.
In recent years, with the increase in housing prices in large cities in Liaoning Province, like Cai Wenying, the number of people who used to work in large cities has increased year by year.
The town’s commerce is more prosperous than the village, and the logistics are more developed. The living service facilities are not much different from those in the big cities, but the consumption level is quite different.
"My life in the town is more comfortable than in the city." Cai Wenying said, I usually have nothing to do with the old people, walk around, play cards, and dance square dancing at night. Life is not so boring. The Internet is developing rapidly, and all the daily necessities needed are available. Buy it online.
Cai Wenying also posted a short video of her dancing on the short video platform, and she often left comments from fans.
She also surfs the Internet, browses news and information, and is not afraid of not having a common topic with her son.
"Keep the household registration and provide for the elderly in both places" has become a new way for many older migrant workers to provide for the elderly.
67-year-old Li Guizhi lives in Nanjing with his son's family every winter, and then returns to the village when the weather is warm.
Her household registration is in her hometown in Donggang, Liaoning. The village developed village-run collective enterprises, and planted Dandong strawberries to make the whole village rich. Not only could she receive a dividend of 3,000 yuan at the end of the year, she also provided major illness relief, home care and other service guarantees.
Volunteers provide door-to-door service once a week, including haircuts, water pipe repairs, light bulb changes... Some things that are difficult for the elderly to do are not difficult in Li Guizhi's village.
In addition, Li Caiyou said that nursing homes are still the most unwilling place for most people.
Affected by "abandoned care before going to a nursing home", "freedom, not accustomed to living in a collective life", "living with children is the joy of family", only a small number of disabled and semi-disabled rural elderly choose to live Into the nursing home.
There should be a livable environment wherever you are for the elderly
More and more older migrant workers are faced with the choice of where to provide for the elderly. For the relevant government departments, they are faced with the question of how to make the migration and housing more reasonable and scientific.
"Blindly guiding elderly migrant workers to go to the city for the elderly is not necessarily a good recipe. Whether in the city or in the country, there should be a livable environment." said Wang Lei, director of the Institute of Sociology, Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.
Wang Lei said that for elderly migrant workers who want to return to their hometowns for the elderly, in the process of rural urbanization, small and medium-sized towns try to protect rural arable land and trees and vegetation, and some communities retain the pattern of the farming era, so that the elderly can quickly adapt to the situation. Good solution.
For elderly migrant workers who want to stay in the city for the aged, it is more effective to implement preferential house purchase policies, establish charity funds to help the poor, and implement centralized support for the elderly, weak, sick and disabled.
After talking with a number of older migrant workers, Li Caiyou found that for the elderly, good material conditions are the foundation, but they also need a good spiritual atmosphere, such as the support spirit of the children for the elderly, and the spiritual and cultural life of the community.
He said that while urbanization can be carried out, preferential policies can be used to attract older migrant workers' children to develop in their hometowns, or rural development can be combined with industry and tourism to form regional characteristics, and older migrant workers will also be willing to return.
Wang Lei believes that migrant workers are a special group, for them, the ability to resist risks is not high.
With the development of the economy and society, migrant workers will also face new choices in the pension model. How to better stimulate the vitality of the rural economy, so that the group has more sources of income, and ensure that the elderly have a sense of security and wealth. Raising may be a question that everyone needs to think about.