Lonely Sunsets: Impacts of Rural-urban Migration on the Left-behind Elderly in Rural China

ABSTRACT Drawing on the data from the research that samples 400 elderly who lived separately from their migrant children in 10 rural communities in China, this paper examines how the outmigration of rural youth shapes the situation of their older kin and analyses the consequences of the rural–urban...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Population space and place 2014-05, Vol.20 (4), p.352-369
Main Authors: He, Congzhi, Ye, Jingzhong
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
care system
China
Economics
Elderly people
familial support
Intervention
Labor Migration
left-behind elderly
Migrants
Migrants' children
Migration
modernisation
Peoples Republic of China
Risk
Rural
Rural Areas
Rural communities
Rural society
Rural to Urban Migration
Rural-urban migration
Social Change
Social Support
Sunset
Transformations
Welfare
Youth
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Summary:ABSTRACT Drawing on the data from the research that samples 400 elderly who lived separately from their migrant children in 10 rural communities in China, this paper examines how the outmigration of rural youth shapes the situation of their older kin and analyses the consequences of the rural–urban migration for the old‐age support system. The research finds that a large scale of rural labour force has been drained off from rural societies and placed in a ‘semi‐proletarianized’ situation during the recent three decades of rapid social transformations. The rules and resources of traditional care system have been changed and family is no longer a ‘network of safety’ or reliable source of obtaining support for the elderly. Although some elastics and adaptabilities can be found in rural families, the family cannot soften and deal with all the risks popped up in the transformation independently. It can be said that the migration of the rural workforce to urban centres has degraded the welfare of the left‐behind elderly. Institutional interventions should no longer mystify and romanticise the role of the family, rather, it should look beyond the family level, caring more about ‘human beings’ instead of economy and efficiency. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
ISSN:1544-8444
1544-8452
DOI:10.1002/psp.1829