基于生命周期的流动抉择:新疆彝族管地工的“成家礼”

Life-Cycle-Based Mobility Choices:"Passage to Family Status"of the Yi Farm Laborers in Xinjiang

当前凉山彝族人口流动现象呈现出多态性特征,但相关研究主要聚焦于东南沿海的工厂制造业中,忽视了前往新疆务农的近十万凉山彝人。这个群体的社会学特征与东南沿海的打工彝人有显著的差异——东南沿海以尚未成婚的年轻人为主,而前往新疆的彝人大都已成婚,拖家带口地在新疆生活。导致两种完全不同的流动现象的直接原因是东南沿海用工的年龄限制和工厂宿舍制不利于已婚彝人前往,而新疆的大农田则为以家庭为流动单位的彝人提供了劳作和生活的必要空间。由此可见,彝族人口流动多态性的生成不仅与劳动力市场的需求和流动人口本身具备的技能、语言和文化能力相关,而且与流动人口自身所处的生命周期相关;流向新疆务农,不仅是在顺应新疆劳动力市场的需求,也是彝人在应对外流时就自己婚后的生计和生活所做的安排或调整。

At present,the population mobility of the Liangshan Yi people is varied,but relevant research projects mainly focus on factory manufacturing on the southeast coast,ignoring the nearly 100,000 Liangshan Yi people who go to Xinjiang for farming work.The Liangshan Yi people entered Xinjiang in large numbers around the year 2000.With the increase of agricultural land in Xinjiang,labor shortages have become increasingly serious,stimulating the immigration of Yi people into Xinjiang.After the Yi people came to Xinjiang,they were gradually drawn to the local agricultural labor market.Some chose to stay as temporary workers in various agricultural production facilities,while others became longterm hired farmlabourers.Different from the unmarried Yi youths working on the southeast coast,most of the Yi people in Xinjiang have gotten married and tend to have all their family members come to Xinjiang.Since the Yi workermigration to the coast was considered as a“passage to manhood”,it seems reasonable to describe Yi people's migration to Xinjiang as a“passage to family status”.The direct reason for such difference is age restrictions in employment in the coastal areas,as well as a local factory dormitory system that discourages the migration of married Yi couples.The spread out rural farmlands in Xinjiang, instead, would provide necessary space for them to work and live there with their families. Getting married and starting a family means the migrant worker needs more private living space and more income to support a family. As a result, these Yi farmers are no longer the ideal employees for urban factories. Their rising age reduces their productivity, compared with younger single workers, and hence they face the risk of being “eliminated” by urban employers. To obtain the needed family living space and to be able to assume family responsibilities, a married Yi laborer needs to find a new adequate location, and the cotton fields in Xinjiang exactly meet their family mobility needs. In terms of social structure factors, mobility choices following lifecycle changes correlate with the employment needs of urban manufacturing industries. Manufacturing upgrades, employment age restrictions, and factory housing arrangements have all driven married migrant workers out of the city. The relocation of Yi agricultural workers from urban factories to the cotton fields in Xinjiang shows that the contradiction between rural and urban workers is more substantial in an individual's new lifecycle. Cities prefer single young people because accepting migrant families means that they need to solve many public service issues such as education, health care, and housing-which will undoubtedly demand more public spending. After getting married, you can't establish a foothold in the city. The emergence of the flow of Yi people is not only related to labor market demands or the language and culture skills of these migrants but also their life cycles. This means that travelling to Xinjiang and working the farmland cater to the labor market needs in Xinjiang, but it's also a life strategy and change chosen by the Yi people.