They are also Parents They Are Also Parents - A Study on Migrant Workers | Page 60

CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
them, that’s great, but if they don’t then that’s that. Boys are particularly difficult
CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
Meanwhile, there are other concerns.
to manage. A neighbor’s child who has been living with his grandmother since
his parents have left to seek work, told her, ‘I’ll knife you if you’re too strict.’ We “Going home for Spring Festival [Chinese New Year], we heard our daughter’s
are concerned about our limited communication with the kids.” classmates say that she goes to internet cafes … I’m worried she will become
addicted. Being so far away, if that happens, we don’t know what to do, so after
In 2010, Ou’s eldest daughter entered junior high, which was relatively far
the summer vacation we brought her back here.”
away from home. That combined with the poor quality of teaching made
Ou and his wife decide to have the two girls live with them in Zhuhai. But For, Ou, having the family together again at least means they can
the eldest daughter’s tuition fees were CNY3,200 per semester (a private communicate and he and his wife can take care of the children.
secondary school), while the younger daughter’s primary school (a public
primary school) required a one-time payment of CNY2500 to cover tuition “When our older daughter is studying in my hometown, and my parents are
from Grade 2 to Grade 6, with subsequent tuition fees of CNY2-300 per in the countryside, and we are here in Zhuhai – one family in three places, it
month. feels bad. When the children are at home, no matter how painful or tiring it
is, just chatting with them makes life a little easier. When the children are not
“Although policy states that schooling costs for migrant children and local
around, I only think about problems at the factory.”
children should be the same, local schoolchildren do not have to pay so
much,” says Ou. “This year the elder daughter should go on to senior high, For the future, Ou says the only real option is to return home. We won’t have
but we’re concerned about her not passing the high-school admission test enough money to buy a house in the city. We hope the children will get a
in Zhuhai. In our hometown, a family of only girls receives additional points, chance to develop, and I hope they can stay near the hometown, and we can
so we’re letting the older daughter study back at home, but the economic take care of each other. “They can care for us when we get old.”
pressure is big.
Case 3: I want to be part of your life
In order to make more money, a relative introduced Ou Haisheng to work in a
A-ying, 33 years old, parent of two children
company in Hebei Province, in the north of the PRC, for CNY6,000 per month.
While it was a long way from home, he still chose to go. Unfortunately, he A-ying comes from Hunan Province. Unsatisfactory junior high-school results
only received CNY2,800 per month in hand. His family in Zhuhai begged him coupled with the poor economy in her home province, led her to seek work
to return. After much thought, Ou returned to Zhuhai, but that meant he opportunities in the city. In the past 18 years, she has seldom gone home.
made very little money in the first half of the year. Her eldest child is 10, and her youngest is six. In order to have a better
living environment, her and husband borrowed a lot of money when they got
“In work life, you will encounter some problems regardless of whether children married and moved from the countryside. Now the in-laws take care of the
are around, but if children are around, you need to work and take care of the children in their hometown.
kids,” says Ou. “After work, we have to cook, and also remind the child to do
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this and that. It’s very tiring. We don’t work at the same factory. If we did, at Her children present A-ying with a dilemma. If she stays with them, she can’t
could at least swap shifts.” be with her husband, but if stays with her husband, then she can’t be with
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