China Migrant Workers Face Hardship of Separation From Children

Yang Wei, 26, and his wife share a small apartment in the manufacturing hub of Dongguan, in the Pearl River Delta. Every morning they bicycle a few kilometers to their jobs at two electronics components plants. To see their 6-year-old daughter they take a 17-hour train ride, followed by six more hours on three buses. She lives in mountainous Fenghuang County, Hunan, more than 600 kilometers (373 miles) to the northwest, with Yang’s 53-year-old mother. He and his wife see their daughter once every 12 months for 10 days during the Chinese New Year.

“Every time we are together, our first feeling is great happiness that we can once again play with our daughter,” Yang said. “But then as the days pass and we know we will have to leave, we feel sadness and a great guilt. We have given her so little time as she grows up, and we know she again will be without parents.”