North drifter trapped in Pi Village： Under the epidemic situation, migrant workers lost their jobs on the construction site.

Original Tian Jin Economic Observer

In May, when the epidemic came, Picunke, who used to live at two o’clock and one line, began to live in a small low-rise rental house, living in Picun on the edge of this huge city.

Author: Tian Jin

Photo: Tian Jin

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One ||| Losing a wife in middle age, being unemployed for three months, and losing social security, all of which seem unbearable for a middle-aged person. However, Gou Zaihu, who has experienced these things, just tells his feelings without ups and downs: "It’s hard, and life has to pass. Take it one step at a time, it’s boring to think too much, and it doesn’t work. "

Er ||| After losing his job, Xu Liangyuan, who can’t shop online or brush videos, can only wander around Pi Village every day. Unlike the villagers who work on the construction site, Xu Liangyuan smokes, drinks, plays poker and mahjong. I just play chess, play table tennis, find someone to chat blindly, and sleep for a day when I am bored.

As the principal of the school, Shen Jinhua is still trying to build his own community education experimental field on the original site of the school. She said: "The epidemic has accelerated the progress of our withdrawal from the long river of history, and we have been lost and confused. But I believe this will be the beginning of a new opportunity. "

Pitun was briefly quiet.

Passing through the artistic Picun Gate, a building more like 798, you see a commercial main street that stretches for more than 500 meters. Various fly restaurants, such as Anhui noodles and Sichuan cuisine, are arranged like building blocks with fruit and vegetable shops and barber shops. The walls of self-built houses, which were uniformly painted with khaki and dark red, began to mottle and fall off, and "apartment rental and bag occupancy" with mobile phone numbers became the most advertised on the walls.

At 1: 00 noon on May 18th, the temperature was 30 degrees Celsius, and there was almost no shadow to hide in the main commercial street. Men, women and children dressed in construction clothes or sportswear hung their heads and quickly crossed the street. Looking up, the narrow skyline has been cut by scattered wires, and the planes that roared across the air every few minutes before the epidemic disappeared.

Workers’ Literature, School for Migrant Workers’ Children, Fan Yusu, this is a city village in Beijing that has been labeled with various labels, and it is also the only foothold for 10,000 migrant workers who have left their homes in Beijing.

Some people’s income in the past three months is almost zero, and the rent for the next month is beginning to become a problem. The time for starting work is still not visible, but returning to their hometown is still not their option. "The salary of three or four thousand yuan in their hometown can’t support themselves and their children at all," said a Picun guest.

However, compared with the difficulties they face repeatedly, the impact of this epidemic is just another mediocre twist in their lives. On the whole, they are going to endure it again.

In May, when the epidemic came, Picunke, who used to live at two o’clock and one line, began to live in a small low-rise rental house, living in Picun on the edge of this huge city.

The third month of losing income

Standing on the roadway and opening the door, if you are in Huzaipi Village, you can take in everything in a glance-next to the window is a bed, with winter quilts and various cloth bags piled up on the bed, and the bed is the bed for him and his 9-year-old son; On the stove, there are often dishes and woks that have not been washed the day before; The rest of the space is occupied by messy daily necessities such as seasonings, washing machines and beer bottles.

At the beginning of the year, Gou Zaihu rested in the rental house for two months due to physical reasons. When he began to look for a job in late April, the epidemic in Beijing resumed and all renovation work was suspended. He said: "In the past, I mainly relied on relatives and friends, former employers, etc., and in the last month, I reported that I didn’t have a job. It has been confiscated for three months now, and I just play my mobile phone at home every day. It has never been interrupted for so long before. If the only deposit is eaten like this, and it has not lived for another month, it will be finished and you can only borrow money. "

Because of the interruption of income, the social security he began to pay last year was also cut off. "Last year, the social security payment company that I was looking for specially had to pay about 2,000 yuan a month, just thinking that I could get a pension after I was 60 years old, and I would have more protection for myself, and I wouldn’t burden my children in the future. If it is broken now, it will be broken. Then we will see if we can find a company to return it. It can only be like this. "

On February 14, 2022, when he returned to Beijing with his son, he set himself the goal of paying off 50,000 yuan for building in one year.

According to the past life track, such a goal is not difficult to achieve: to be a decoration worker, the daily salary is more than 400 yuan. Although I don’t have a job every day, I can earn over 100,000 yuan a year under normal market conditions. In terms of cost, the annual rent, utilities are about 10 thousand yuan, the children’s tuition is in their early 10 thousand, and the living expenses of the father and son are about 30 thousand.

This is the 14th year of Gou’s drifting in northern Hubei.

The decorator is in Hu’s rental house

In 2008, 34-year-old Gou Zaihu and his wife set off from Bazhong, Sichuan Province, and after hanging around on a green leather train for nearly 30 hours, they began to drift north. After that, every year, I basically only go home once during the Chinese New Year.

From Liangmaqiao and Daqing Temple in the East Third Ring Road to Jiuxian Bridge and Heiqiao Village, and finally to Pi Village outside the Northeast Fifth Ring Road. Talking about the place where you have rented, Gou Zaihu can name a long list of place names. As in the past, his monthly rent in 600 yuan is the lowest in Picun, so he can only go to the bathhouse to take a bath and go to the toilet in a public toilet. In Beijing for 14 years, as a decorator, he witnessed and participated in the rapid expansion of the city scale, and his rental office moved out step by step.

He said: "moving around is actually very troublesome. I would rather pay more rent than live." Many times, if the rented house is to be demolished, it can only be moved, basically once every two or three years. "

As a decorator, he often needs to ride a motorcycle from Pichun at 5 am, start working at the construction site at 7: 30, and return to the rental house around 9: 00 every night. Although the days in Beipiao are hard, through years of working savings and borrowing from friends and relatives, in 2019, he built a three-story building in his hometown, which is basically the lifelong pursuit of every local fellow who goes out to work.

Gou Zaihu said: "The frame of the house cost about 300,000 yuan, so the house has no money to decorate, and you have to save it slowly by yourself. Because my parents are gone, the house is now "dusty" in my hometown. Insisting on building a house is to have a place to live when I go home in the future. Leaves fall back to the roots, and China has this tradition. "

But in the year when the house was completed, his wife died of illness, and all his life rhythms were disrupted.

He still retains many living habits that his wife asked for when she was alive. "When I am happy, I cook for myself and eat with my children. Although every time I cook, the house will be filled with the smell of oil smoke, but I eat more cleanly and hygienically. The food sold outside, sometimes rice is not scoured. The nearby second-hand clothing store will basically not go. In any case, it is necessary to eat and wear, and there is no money to find a way. "

Losing a wife in middle age, being unemployed for three months, and losing social security payments all seem unbearable for a middle-aged person. However, Gou Zaihu, who has experienced these things, just tells his feelings without ups and downs: "It’s hard, and life has to pass. Take it one step at a time, it’s boring to think too much, and it doesn’t work. "

For the future, Gou Zaihu said that he didn’t think so much. "I am still doing well at this age, and it is unrealistic to go back. The salary of three or four thousand in my hometown can’t even support my children. The problem of children’s school status can only be solved later. Now there is a job to do, no matter how much money it is. Since the end of last year, the owner of a construction unit has owed me and the nearby workers a total salary of more than 200,000 yuan, and now I can’t contact others. At present, I am thinking about the end of the epidemic and trying to go to court to apply for labor arbitration and get back my hard-earned money. "

Gou is talking nonsense. His 9-year-old son is his whole hope for work and life. In fact, he also has an eldest son in his twenties, but he rarely talks about it to outsiders. "The eldest son dropped out of school to work in the second grade of junior high school and was disobedient. We want to study without money, but he has the conditions not to study, and I can’t help it. I don’t expect anything from him, just take care of your own life. "

After the conversation, my youngest son’s mobile phone, which had been lying in bed brushing videos for nearly an hour, was taken back by Gou Zaihu again, with a sentence "Write your homework quickly and stop playing".

Idle down

5 yuan with a cap, 15 yuan with shoes, 12 yuan with a coat, and 10 yuan with jeans, all of which were spent by 56-year-old Xu Liangyuan on new clothes two days ago.

He said: "They are all cheap second-hand goods. Always wearing work clothes looks messy, and sometimes some people will say that you are too sloppy and lazy. Second-hand clothing stores are cheap and have many choices, and they can also decorate face. We don’t waste much, and we don’t have any money to waste. "

After losing his job, Xu Liangyuan, who can’t shop online or brush videos, can only wander around Pi Village every day. Unlike the villagers who work on the construction site, Xu Liangyuan smokes, drinks, plays poker and mahjong. I just play chess, play table tennis, find someone to chat blindly, and sleep for a day when I am bored.

In the past 28 years, Xu Liangyuan has been working outside the home. In 1994, at the age of 28, he went to work in Guangdong from Xiaogan, Hubei, and then moved to Dongguan, Tianjin and other cities.

28-year-old migrant worker Xu Liangyuan

When working on the construction site in Dongguan, it often happens that people are injured by smashing and falling. Xu Liangyuan’s wife was helping the kitchen wash dishes in the restaurant, because the restaurant business was better and she often worked overtime. Coupled with the heat in Guangdong in summer, the couple spread a mat on the ground, poured a layer of water on it, and then turned on the fan to blow it all night. For a long time, my wife fell ill with rheumatism and osteopathy. At the beginning of 2003, my wife began to rest at home because of illness.

In April 2003, Xu Liangyuan’s construction site in Tianjin was dissolved due to the SARS epidemic. Bearing the pressure that his lover needed money to treat his illness and his children went to school, he dared not go back to his hometown and eventually moved to Dawangjing Village in Beijing. At that time, just as Dawangjing Village was transformed into Dawangjing Business District, the demolition of old houses and the construction of new buildings provided a large number of employment opportunities for migrant workers.

Because it is next to Wangjing, the business of renting houses nearby is very hot, and Xu Liangyuan is responsible for helping private bosses with the work of building walls, plastering, installing doors and windows, and so on. The salary is 45 yuan/day, which is beyond my imagination in my hometown. Rent a bungalow covered with asbestos tiles, 120 yuan a month. The only worry was that at that time, the management of foreign population was strict, and temporary residence permits were often checked. Xu Liangyuan and his workers went to the river or the vegetable fields to hide in fear.

At the end of 2003, after her health improved, her wife began to drift north with Xu Liang Yuan, and she stayed there for 19 years. During this period, the three children got married separately. However, he still hasn’t stopped drifting north.

In his hometown in Hubei, for people his age, it is far from retirement. He said: "It is even harder to find a job in my hometown, but if you don’t go out to work at home in your fifties, you will be laughed at by the old people in the village, saying that you eat for nothing and you are boring yourself. Anyway, I just can’t stay at home. "

Xu Liangyuan has no plans to rely on his children to provide for his old age. A few years ago, he used his savings to give his eldest son a down payment to buy a house in the county, and his son was responsible for repaying the mortgage, but he still chose to return to his hometown in the village when he returned home for the New Year. Now, his eldest son is engaged in real estate sales in Chaoyang District, Beijing. They are not rented together-the son rents a house with a monthly rent of more than 1,000 yuan, and he rents a bungalow in 400 yuan/month in Pichun. Without air conditioning, heating and electrical appliances, a tricycle can carry all the luggage.

He explained: "I have been working for many years, and I am used to a relatively primitive life, and I don’t bother him. The rented house is not so hot in summer. Just fan it with a cattail fan or go outside for a walk. It is extremely cold in winter, so it is necessary to build three beds and pad three quilts, and the landlord of the electric blanket will not let it be used. The electricity bill is 1.51 yuan, which can save a little. A common cold can’t help me. "

Xu Liangyuan doesn’t communicate much with his family, and he only talks once every week. In recent months, affected by the epidemic, the eldest son can only get a basic salary of more than 3,000 yuan per month, so he offered to borrow money from him to repay the mortgage. "I know that he has a lot of pressure to raise children and repay mortgages. But what can I do to help? In the last two months or so, I have been working for 20 days off and on, and I have no money myself. We can only overcome our own difficulties. "

At the end of 2020, Beipiao returned to his hometown to help his grandson’s wife. Every time he called, he basically asked him for money and talked nonsense. But how can I get money without work? Later, she also asked if she was tired. "

Xu Liangyuan hasn’t planned to go home yet, although he has spent thousands of dollars. "The old-age insurance in his hometown is still being paid, but he can’t get 200 yuan money every month after he is 60 years old, and he can’t do anything. Now I want to save more money and go home when I can’t move. "

Shen Jinhua’s dream

At the end of the main commercial street in Pichun is the Tongxin Experimental School, a school for migrant children that has been in operation for fifteen years. In the autumn of 2020, the school was forced to close down due to various factors.

In the first half of 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the school never ushered in the resumption of classes. At that time, the problem of student drain became very difficult. By the end of 2019, there were about 180 students in six grades of primary school and more than 40 students in kindergartens. In the first half of 2020, when online classes were started and tuition fees were collected, news of students dropping out of school came one after another. When the fall semester begins in the second half of 2020, the school found that only 80 children were willing to come back.

In August 2020, the principal of the school, Shen Jinhua, and other teachers were still preparing for the resumption of classes offline for the remaining 80 students. "At that time, we had not received any notice of closure, and we had been preparing for the resumption of classes in the autumn semester, including the renovation of the bathroom. On the evening of August 29th, the Education Commission also informed us that we would have an inspection the next day. On August 30th, the Education Commission suddenly held an emergency meeting to inform us that students from another migrant children’s school in Pi Village would be diverted to a school in Ligezhuang. Tongxin Experimental Primary School, which has been in operation for 15 years, has come to an end. "

Picun Tongxin experimental school gate

In 2005, Shen Jinhua, who just graduated from college, and the volunteers who are also the workers’ homes in Beijing jointly founded the Picun Tongxin Experimental School, which is the principal of the school. The enrollment of the school is mainly for the children of migrant workers in Picun. At the peak, the number of students in the school reached 800, but since 2013, the number of students has gone from bad to worse.

Shen Jinhua said: "In the second half of 2013, the whole country began to unify electronic student status. If the children of migrant workers in Beipiao don’t go to school in their hometown, they may not be able to apply for electronic student status, which will determine whether their children can take the senior high school entrance examination, and our schools for migrant children can’t apply for electronic student status in Beijing. In the end, it forced many students to return; In 2018, the function of relieving non-capital was also greatly affected. Kitchenware and plexiglass factories near Pichun were moved to Hebei, Tianjin and other places. Now there are basically no factories near Pichun. When employment opportunities move out, many parents take their children back to their hometown to go to school. At that time, some school teachers chose to leave with their families because the factory where Mr. Wang was employed moved out. "

The operation of Tongxin Experimental Primary School has always been in a "grey zone". When the school was founded in 2005, Shen Jinhua applied for a school license, but it was rejected at that time and has not been passed since.

Shen Jinhua introduced that as early as 2010, a section chief of the discipline run by local social forces once called a meeting of the principals of nearby migrant children’s schools, and mentioned that Beijing should apply to become a world-class city, even for migrant children’s schools that already have school licenses, they should be prepared not to renew their licenses after they expire. The latest deadline for school closure will be 2020. It was also at that time that Shen Jinhua knew that the moment of shutdown would come.

According to the data provided by Shen Jinhua, from 2005 to 2020, the number of migrant children’s schools in Beijing dropped from more than 500 to less than 100.

When the shutdown really came, she still had a lot to give up. "In the face of sudden shutdown, teachers need to deal with parting emotions and job changes. After helping children to adapt to the new school environment in 2020, three of the five teachers left for training institutions or kindergartens. "

What should we do next? Some people persuaded her to be a nursery institution in the air, while others persuaded her to dissolve directly in the same place and make their own living.

Previously, Tongxin Experimental Primary School mainly played two roles, one was to provide basic education, and the other was to provide venues and manpower for weekend public welfare activities and free community education courses. The two costs are basically borne by students’ tuition fees.

Shen Jinhua said: "Without the basic education, it means that all the public welfare courses will have no source of funds. As a non-profit organization, we want to continue to do education, and we also have many external social resources and teachers who are willing to go on together. At that time, the pressure was really great and I didn’t know how to reposition my role. "

In 2021, Shen Jinhua began to explore extending the weekend community education courses to every day to form a child-friendly community public welfare education space. School teachers and regular volunteers provided cooking, book reading, design thinking and other courses for children after school or on weekends. All costs are covered by the membership fee system and public welfare donations. "There are two main types of parents who come to sign up for the course. First, they think that the course is rich and can exercise and improve their children; Secondly, parents have no time to take care of their children at all, hoping that their children will have a safe place to play and study. "

Shen Jinhua admits that such a community education model is still under exploration. Because of repeated epidemics, course activities have been interrupted many times, but manpower and venue rent have always been needed.

"Now there are more than 20 regular courses, which is far from covering all basic operating costs. We can only gradually persuade more parents to participate and strive for more public welfare donations. In fact, our remaining funds can only be maintained until August this year, "Shen Jinhua said.

In her vision, in the future mature community education space, Picun children and their parents can participate. "Through low-cost service, the education space can not only achieve continuous operation, but also reduce the dependence on public fundraising. Even if there are financial concerns, parents can exchange various courses and venue services through voluntary activities. In the end, the relationship between people in Picun will be closer and more active. "

At five o’clock on the afternoon of May 18th, the quiet Pi Village became lively again-people in twos and threes poured out of the rented house and came to the main street through the narrow lane. The chef of the snack bar began to stir the wok, and the owner of the fruit and vegetable shop was busy bagging and weighing. The smell of various foods, the smell of people’s sweat and the sound of conversation are mixed together for a while. Life, everything seems to have returned to three years ago.

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Original title: "North drifters trapped in Pi Village: Under the epidemic situation, migrant workers have no site work"

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