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Aged migrants who relocate to Beijing often face social and psychological hardships. Photo: CFP
They are the group of people often forgotten among the busy crowds in the capital. Despite being aged and gray, they leave their hometowns to join the expanding population of China’s migrants moving to unfamiliar cities. They are dubbed old beipiao, people who migrate to Beijing, but lack the city’s coveted hukou, or permanent residency permit.
Over 60 percent of these aged migrants move to Beijing to be with their children, or young beipiao, who earn a living in the city. The chief task of these senior settlers is to look after their grandchildren while their adult children work.
Only 8.8 percent of them leave their hometown to pursue the dream of an urban lifestyle, according to figures from a survey published in Friends of the Elderly magazine in 2009.
The country’s traditional festival for the elderly, the Double Ninth Festival, falls on October 5 this year. As it draws closer, the spotlight has been increasingly shone on the often grim social plight faced by aged migrants.
Strain and solitude
In Chinese culture, the elderly are revered for their important role within the extended family.
Li Meisuo moved to Beijing in his 60s four years ago to help take care of his grandchildren. Life for him has been tough ever since he lost his sight in his 30s in a workplace accident in his hometown of Yangquan in north China’s Shanxi Province.
He tried to prove that he could do the same work despite his blindness, but struggled to find meaningful employment after his accident. Nevertheless, he always imagined he would live a relaxed lifestyle in his retirement. Since moving to Beijing however, life has become even busier due to his subsequent baby-sitting and housekeeping duties.
Although he feels proud of his daughters for successfully settling in the capital, Li has personally struggled to enjoy such a smooth transition to life in Beijing. In Shanxi, he and his wife lived in a 120-square-meter house. In Beijing, he shares a 70-square-meter apartment with four other family members. “I usually get up around five in the morning,” he said. “If I wake up later, such as at six, my children and grandchildren will use the toilet and I have to wait.”
Another hardship of life is the loneliness. Since moving to Beijing four years ago, Li said he almost never talks to his neighbors. When his wife goes out shopping, he stays home alone listening to the radio or playing his accordion.
“When a couple has children, it’s normal for their focus to shift to the children and neglect their own parents,” said Xu Kun, a professor of philosophy at Beijing’s Capital Normal University and founder of a hotline that provides psychological assistance to the aged.
Big dreams in the big city
Yu Xiaohe, 61, belongs to the minority of aged migrants in that she doesn’t need to worry about caring for her grandchildren. She migrated to Beijing years ago, despite not knowing anyone in the city.
Yu used to be a comrade at the Beijing office of a Henan-based company.
After retiring and the breakdown of her marriage, she decided to stay in Beijing to “prove I had the ability to live in the big city,” she told the Global Times.
From humble beginnings, Yu worked as a cleaner and rented a modest eight-square-meter underground room for 200 yuan ($31) per month.
She still lives in a rented flat, but her monthly salary as a cleaner and nanny has climbed to more than 2,000 yuan.
She’s happy with her life in Beijing, saying that now she has more opportunities to socialize and even date.
“I have made a lot of friends through social events for the elderly held by many organizations and online communities. We often gather at parks and talk about troubles in our life, while encouraging each other,” she said, bashfully adding that although she has tried to find love again, she knows “it will be difficult to find an ideal spouse.”
A fan of music, particularly drums, she even has what she modestly describes as an “unrealistic” dream to start a band in Beijing.
Welfare woes
For many gray migrants, growing old brings many problems. Under the national policy for social welfare, the aged can only access endowment insurance in their hometowns. If they have lived in another city for a long time, they can apply for rebates of some medical costs. However, not everyone enjoys these benefits due to bureaucratic restraints.
“The procedures are often very complicated and reimbursement can only be claimed during a particular period each year,” complained grandmother Miao, 70, who has lived in Beijing for almost a decade caring for her grandson.
“Society should recognize the social contribution made by aged migrants in big cities,” Tang Jun, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Beijing News newspaper.
“If we do not have them, a large number young couples cannot concentrate on their work because they have children who need care and attention,” he added.
