Left behind, at-risk, and vulnerable elders in rural China

- We examine the living arrangements of rural Chinese residents 60 or older.
- The most vulnerable elders are those living alone with no adult children nearby.
- Accurately accounting for migration of family members is critical.
- Many elders with a migrant child continue to live with another child.
- Migration of children affects elders' mental health but less so than losing a spouse.
- Demographic features of elders living with children and grandchildren differ greatly.

Migration of any distance separates family members for long periods of time. In China, institutional legacies continue to privilege the migration of working-age individuals who often leave children and elders behind in the rural areas. Up to now, the literature has treated children and elders analogously, labeling each group as “left-behind.” We argue that analysis of elder stayers needs to be more nuanced, distinguishing among differing groups of elders. Of these groups, those living alone without any adult children in the village are most at risk, while those living with other non-migrant adult children are much less affected by migration. Another group of elders, clearly affected by migration, are those caring for their grandchildren while the children's parents have migrated. Members of this latter group need to be distinguished from those living alone as they are dissimilar in many fundamental ways (age, working status, marital status) and face a very different set of challenges from those left behind (perhaps frail) and alone.