They are also Parents They Are Also Parents - A Study on Migrant Workers | Page 64

CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
CCR CSR | A Study on Migrant Workers with Left-behind Children in China | August 2013
“My eldest son came to live and study with us when he was six, and he Jiang puts her youngest in a nursery in the morning, and their grandparents
studied here until high school before returning home because he was unable pick him up in the afternoon. “Although every day is a day of hard work, there
to take the college entrance examination in Zhuhai,” says Jiang. are still chores to do such as washing clothes, and taking care of the children’s
homework, until as late as 10 p.m. It’s beautiful to be with the children,” says
She sobs as she recalls the scene: “He’s psychologically conflicted; he feels
Jiang, despite how hard her life is.
hatred towards his parents. I feel bad. He came to Zhuhai when he was six,
but he didn’t want to study here; he wanted to go back home. When I asked “I'm not a good mother, and I don’t have much time to take care of the
him why, he said he wouldn’t have to do as much homework at home, and children,” she says, but she also describes not being able to be together with
wouldn’t get told off. It took him three months to adapt to the environment her children as “a kind of torture,” and says it impacts her both in terms of her
here.” work and psychologically.
Jiang’s husband helps to transfer waste at several factories. Most of the Of her time in the knitting factory, she recalls, “You need to count the number
couple’s income goes to their children’s schooling. After working for nearly of revolutions of the wheel when making sweaters in the factory, but thinking
20 years, she is grateful her home economic conditions have improved, but about my boy would make me lose my train of thought,” she says. “I’d try
family life still has its trials. to tell myself that other kids go through the same thing, try to control my
emotions. I’d want to go home to have a look, and make sure he was OK, but
“When our son was in the last year of junior high, that was the worst, because
I also wanted to make more money.”
he was playing computer games,” she says. “I caught him in internet cafes
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and I told him if he continued I wouldn’t let him go to school, wouldn’t give Jiang says does not have overly high expectations of her children, and only
him clothes to wear, or food to eat. My husband got very angry and spanked hopes that they can graduate from university and find jobs. Her biggest wish
him with a pair of slippers. He immediately took my husband’s mobile and is to have stable work and make enough money for her two children to attend
called the police hotline. But the police know slippers are nothing, and they school. If she could, she says, she would like to tell them, “Grow up happy
didn’t come.” and study hard.”
She says the boy later admitted that he was wrong, which made her feel more Case 5: I want to see my daughter grow up
sorry for him. A-fen, 40 years old, parent of two children
Today, he is about to take the college entrance exams, and her youngest son A-fen has worked away from home and worried about her daughter for
is with her and her husband. The couple has rented a place to live for CNY300 so many years, she decided to move back and work, even if it meant less
a month, income.
“I don’t care how well we live. As long as the children get to eat well, we A-fen comes from Chongqing, and she currently works in a factory near her
adults can eat less,” she says. hometown of Fengdu County. She is a mother of two children, and the eldest
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