The cost of rural population migration deserves attention

In recent years, reflective research findings on rural population migration have gradually increased, but most still focus on aspects such as "how farmers actually become urbanized" and "how rural areas actually escape poverty and become prosperous." In fact, research on rural population migration needs to take into account the locational environment and the realities of economic and social development of the areas from which people flow out. In the author's follow-up investigation of a village in the mountainous area of southeastern Gansu, it was found that some villages that have long maintained large-scale population migration in pursuit of development have gradually fallen into the "troubles of prosperity" in recent years, that is, economic development and surface-level "prosperity" have not brought farmers the happiness they deserve. On the contrary, anxiety and unease have become a persistent, normalized emotion for farmers. The reasons for this development paradox of "prosperity coexisting with troubles" need to be explored from the process of population migration. Among these, the "cost of migration" is an important angle for examination.

　　Migration makes farmers pay physical and emotional costs

In the issue of the "cost" of rural population migration, the migrating farmers themselves are the main bearers of the cost, and in the process of long-term migration they pay costs in two aspects, namely physical costs and emotional costs.

Physical costs are related to long-term engagement in heavy manual labor lacking safety guarantees and protective measures, and are especially prominent among the first generation of migrating farmers. Most of this generation of migrants are now over fifty years old and often do the hardest work in fields such as construction and transportation. After many years, most of them can still clearly recall the discrimination and even deception they once suffered, the occasional work-related injuries, and, together with the loneliness, indignation, and tension diffused within them, this has made their path of migrant work exceptionally arduous. Emotional costs mainly refer to the spiritual suffering brought by migrating farmers being away from home, such as inner emptiness, loneliness, and estrangement from relatives caused by being unable to accompany and care for their parents, wives, and children over the long term. In the investigation, the author learned that a woman from the village who worked away from home failed to buy a ticket in time after learning that her mother was critically ill, and by the time she rushed home, her mother had already been buried. For this reason, she was cold-shouldered by her siblings, which caused her extreme anxiety. Another respondent was full of remorse when talking about what happened to his son, because while he was away working, the child unfortunately fell into a well, and although his life was not in danger after emergency treatment, it caused permanent hearing damage. It can be seen that these "accidents" that occur because of the inability to accompany and care for family members are a heavy psychological blow to migrants.

　　Migration leads to the loss of family functions among farmers

Farmers' migration choice is a rational choice based on the logic of survival and development. From the perspective of the family, the costs paid by farmer families because of migration fall into two categories, namely the cost of lost family functions and the cost of frequent family risks.

The cost of lost family functions mainly refers to the cost caused by the weakening or loss of family functions due to the migration of core members. In this regard, the most concentrated issue is the "left-behind elderly" and "left-behind children" problem formed by the sharp weakening of intergenerational support. In the author's investigation, it was found that many left-behind elderly people, in addition to relying on themselves to meet the needs of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation, also bear the responsibility of caring for their grandchildren, enduring dual pressure physically and mentally. In addition, some children, due to long-term lack of family affection and care, develop a barrier with their parents, which has a certain impact on their healthy growth. The cost of frequent family risks mainly refers to the cost caused by the increase in abnormal events due to the migration of family members. In addition to the bad behavioral habits of children caused by neglect of discipline, which increases the risk of delinquency and crime, another relatively concentrated risk point lies in the disintegration of marriage and family. In the process of continuous population migration, because couples spend little time together and are apart much of the time, their affection fades, and the marital crisis becomes increasingly serious.

　　Migration leads to a lack of development momentum in villages

The costs paid by migrants themselves and their families are actually part of the costs paid by the village. But from the perspective of the village, the real costs it pays are the disruption of interpersonal relationships in the village and the lack of development momentum caused by population migration.

The so-called cost of the disruption of village interpersonal relationships mainly refers to the great impact on primary social relationships within the village, with the original social relationships undergoing adjustment and change. Population migration has made interpersonal relationships in the village semi-acquaintance-based and unfamiliar, and this change in relationships has brought much uncertainty to interpersonal interaction. People are no longer certain about the formerly stable neighborhood relationships and kinship ties with strong emotional color. Instead, they increasingly tend toward calculating, instrumental interaction. The materialization and reciprocal instrumentalization of interpersonal relationships are, to a certain extent, precisely a reflection of the disintegration of acquaintance-society relationships within the village. As the neighborhood and rural ties basically characterized by mutual watchfulness and mutual help, empathy, and care gradually decline, the social psychology of the village also begins to deform, and mindsets such as indifference and jealousy gradually germinate. The village's capacity for joint participation and response to problems no longer has anything to rely on. The so-called cost of the loss of village development momentum mainly refers to the danger of loss of development momentum caused by the outflow of young and middle-aged people in the village (including village elites), which intensifies the "hollowing out" of the village. In the author's investigation, it was learned that, regarding the actual situation of the "left-behind" villagers, what they currently care about most is family livelihood, and they do not care much about matters outside the family, let alone participation in local public affairs such as the economy, society, and environment. Therefore, in such villages, "rural governance" based on villagers' participatory action is difficult to sustain.

Examining the cost paid by rural population migration can undoubtedly deepen our basic understanding of the difficulties faced by rural society on its path toward modernization. Based on what the author saw firsthand in field investigations and on empirical judgment, the trend of rural population migration in underdeveloped areas is rigid and irreversible. As more and more young and middle-aged farmers leave the villages, while widening the distance between themselves and the land, they also choose a path of "de-agrarianization" in which challenges and opportunities coexist. The phenomenon of rural population migration paying costs is, to some extent, a true portrayal of the evolution and development of contemporary China's urban-rural relations. Judging from the reality of the urban-rural development gap and the imbalance in the distribution of various potential resources, behind the appearance of a seemingly free and casual "rational choice" in rural population migration, there are in fact structural constraints that leave people "with no choice" but to do so. Therefore, reflecting on the "cost" of population migration is in fact urgent and necessary in current related research.