Since August 1 2003, China has started to implement the Measures for the Administration of Relief for Vagrants and Beggars Living Without Living in Cities (hereinafter referred to as the Measures for the Administration of Relief), and at the same time abolished the Measures for the Reception and Repatriation of Urban Vagrants and Beggars issued in August 1982. This change shows that the way of assistance has developed from control to management, and it advocates serving the vulnerable groups; It also shows that modern rescue norms have gradually formed, from repatriation to rescue, advocating help and support for vulnerable groups. Since then, the detention and repatriation station has been changed into a rescue management station, and the street vagrants in the floating population will be regarded as a group in need of assistance, and the social control of this group will turn to social governance. There is no doubt that this is the implementation of the "people-oriented" thought, and it also prepares the conditions for the social assistance system and policy system for vagrants and beggars that will eventually form in China.
First, the causes of the formation of vagrants and beggars in contemporary China
The causes of vagrants and beggars in contemporary China are complex and diverse, and poverty and unbalanced distribution of resources are the primary reasons for vagrants and beggars. Anomie in mobility is an important reason for the deterioration of living conditions during mobility and the gradual trend towards vagrancy and begging; The imperfect policies such as peasant population flow, social security for migrant workers and social assistance for vagrants and vulnerable groups are the objective reasons for accelerating the formation of vagrants and beggars. These comprehensive reasons determine the multi-level composition of vagrants and beggars in contemporary China. The reasons for the formation of this group mainly include the following aspects:
(a) Poverty and uneven distribution of resources
According to research data, low income, lack of land resources and poverty caused by various economic components are the fundamental reasons for the large number of vagrants and beggars. The characteristics of this group are mainly manifested in:
1. Low income and low absolute income. According to the statistics of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, in 2003, there were 90 million people with insufficient food and clothing and low income in rural areas of China, accounting for 1 1% of the total rural population. By 2004, the population living below the absolute poverty line in China was 2,665,438+10,000 (in 2004, the rural absolute poverty standard was adjusted from 637 yuan per capita to 668 yuan, and the minimum living standard was adjusted from 882 yuan to 924 yuan), and the absolute poverty population with per capita net income below 600 yuan accounted for 50.2%. The living standard of living beyond one's means will inevitably prompt a considerable number of people to join the ranks of begging. 2. Lack of land resources and low non-agricultural industries. In our country, the population is large and the land resources per capita are scarce, which has always been a difficult problem affecting the improvement of the living standards of rural population. Areas with relatively scarce land resources are usually areas with a single agricultural economy and a low proportion of other production activities. The low net income and relative poverty of farmers are the important reasons for the massive outflow of population. 3. The industry and commerce are weak, and the surplus labor force flows out. Areas with a large population outflow are usually areas with a large number of vagrants and beggars. The reason is that urban industry and commerce and private enterprises in urban and rural areas are underdeveloped, and the tertiary industry is weak, so it cannot absorb more rural surplus labor. Because of their own quality and other reasons, these surplus laborers often can't meet the requirements of work and life in developed cities and become poor people in the process of moving to cities. The emergence of vagrants and beggars has a high correlation with this social mobility. 4. Insufficient ability to work. The rural labor force capacity includes four aspects: labor force status, human resources status, labor resource allocation status and production tools status. The midwest lags far behind the east in these four aspects, which are as follows: (1) the labor force of family members is seriously lacking; The degree of human resources development is low, and the proportion of semi-illiteracy and illiteracy is high; The allocation of labor resources is single, mainly concentrated in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery; Lack of advanced labor tools and backward productivity. 5. The double squeeze of bad external and internal development conditions. That is, the widening gap between the rich and the poor in urban and rural areas leads to a strong motive for the outflow of poor people; Regardless of personal age, figure, skills, etc. It is easy to lead them into extreme poverty; The contradiction between man and land intensifies the poverty of the poor; The value of the labor force can not be guaranteed, and the serious shortage of human capital investment makes them lose the future and foundation of development, and further fall into a vicious circle of poverty and helplessness. So vagrancy and begging have become the simplest way to make a living.
(B) poor living conditions caused by the flow of anomie
Farmers fall into poverty and even become vagrants and beggars in the process of flowing to cities to find jobs, partly because of the anomie of flow. French sociologist Durkheim called the social problems caused by the conflict between tradition and new values "anomie". The theory of "anomie" has a great influence on social, psychological and cultural research. Among them, the theory of cultural structure puts forward two important factors of social and cultural structure from the perspective of goals and means: one is the goal of social recognition; The first is the means to achieve the goal according to social norms. If the goals and means are not recognized in the social structure, there will be anomie. As for the problem of farmers' "anomie in mobility", it means that in the process of farmers' migration to cities, there are deficiencies in personal quality, personal ability, urban life ability, urban life information and urban life support system, which leads to the imbalance between "life goals" and "means to achieve goals", leading to job failure, unemployment, lack of living resources, poor living conditions, chaotic beliefs, deviant behavior and so on.
(3) Marginal status suffers multiple deprivations, and marginal personality strengthens begging psychology.
The problem of "edge" involves two aspects: one is "edge status"; One is "borderline personality". The marginalization of vagrants and beggars can be understood from the following two aspects: First, the generations of vagrants and beggars, such as the rural poor, the seriously ill and some migrant workers, are in a marginal position. Migrant workers, in particular, are on the verge of "being ignored by urban life" in terms of job stability, economic income and basic living security, and are often not treated fairly, with low income, deducted wages, disease-free labor security, unable to find a job, unemployment and so on. Those with weak viability are thrown out of the track of urban life, and begging is often regarded as an informal occupation by them. At present, beggars in many big cities are growing rapidly because they think that making money is a stable "occupation". Secondly, because vagrants and beggars are absolutely deprived groups, they have no social status at all, and their hearts are full of contradictions, conflicts, helplessness and even distortions. They yearn for a better life, but they are often cast aside. They don't want the rascal to be unable to return from the edge. They yearn for a better life and feel ashamed all day long, but they disdain to compare with the rich, want a decent life and are hostile to all constraints, resulting in contemporary vagrants and beggars often showing an antisocial but unhealthy attitude. The occurrence mechanism of this marginal personality of vagrants and beggars is related to the long-term exclusion, neglect and forgetting of the generated population.
(D) Poor family members are unable to maintain their basic livelihood, and the security policy assistance mechanism is not perfect.
The phenomenon of vagrancy and begging caused by difficulties in family life has both objective reasons, such as the heavy burden of population support, low economic situation and weak ability to withstand family changes. There are also subjective reasons, such as improper education of parents, teenagers running away and even wandering the streets; There are also subjective and objective reasons, such as family conflicts leading to running away from home, wandering the world or begging for a living. However, in China, the rescue mechanism of vagrants and beggars' related security policies is far from perfect, which can be summarized as follows: the imperfection of rural population mobility policy and social security policy for migrant workers has led to the poverty of many rural floating population, and the unemployed floating population without survival guarantee has become the source of professional vagrants and beggars; The existing rescue station model is not enough to solve the problem of vagrancy and begging; The aid policy reflects the emergency, but it does not reflect the "saving the poor", so it is difficult to solve the phenomenon of vagrancy and begging from the root; The definition of vagrants and beggars is not broad enough, which makes many professional vagrants become a group that cannot be rescued or managed. It is an inevitable social phenomenon in modern times that the aid policy is imperfect, the management of vagrants and beggars is weak, and a large number of vagrants and beggars are produced. Second, suggestions on improving the social assistance system for vagrants and beggars in contemporary China.
In the historical evolution of China's charity culture, the theory of individual poverty and the theory of social promotion have been generally recognized and passed down to this day: individuals have no face to complain to the government, and society often distinguishes between large and small relief, big rescue and small abandonment; First aid is the most important, slow rescue is the least, or even no rescue, which is gradually interpreted as a temporary social assistance feature supplemented by regular quantification. Under this kind of rescue culture, vagrants and beggars in a special position are basically difficult to get material help. To solve a large number of vagrants and beggars in social life, it is undoubtedly necessary to establish and improve the policy system. In China, improving the social assistance system for contemporary vagrants and beggars should mainly start from the following aspects:
(1) Establish identification standards to help vagrants and beggars by classification and stratification.
Vagrants and beggars are social vulnerable groups and belong to social assistance objects. However, we should not give general assistance, but should target different objects and provide different assistance projects. In particular, we should design classified and layered assistance projects according to this idea:
1. Remedial assistance. Remedial assistance refers to the provision of small relief funds and other economic assistance to poor, sick vagrants and beggars, short-term vagrants and beggars and some vagrants and beggars who refuse to mend their ways. The amount of assistance should be divided into two situations: one is to provide free accommodation and round-trip tolls for those who are rescued because of "theft and deception" and "not meeting each other"; The other is to provide financial assistance to poor and sick vagrants and beggars, short-term vagrants and beggars and some vagrants and beggars who refuse to mend their ways, encourage them to accumulate the most basic survival funds and capital, save their crisis and solve their difficulties. 2. Development assistance. Developmental assistance refers to providing labor and learning opportunities for other people except sick vagrants, and realizing the redevelopment of human resources through adaptive adjustment of psychology, behavior, ability and labor attitude. 3. Limited assistance refers to low assistance to vagrants and beggars who consciously choose and insist on vagrants and beggars, and psychological counseling and behavioral intervention to limit begging behavior and urge them to bear behavioral responsibility. 4. Labor assistance and resettlement, that is, centralized resettlement of vagrants and beggars who break the rules, so that they can participate in labor. This is not only a purposeful way of labor migration, but also a way of behavioral intervention. Let them accumulate funds through labor and encourage them to form new behavior patterns to ease their dependence on vagrancy and begging. 5. Comprehensive adoption is the content of assistance for mentally ill and homeless children. Regarding the reception of mentally ill vagrants, the key is to establish a contact system between mental hospitals, community medical stations and families, and strive for financial assistance from the government. We should combine adoption with raising street children. 6. Public security management is to combine rescue with social security management, crack down on the leaders of begging gangs who beg with children and others, narrow the scope of the crackdown, strengthen the crackdown, punish those followers and prevent them from developing in the direction of illegal begging.
(2) Integrate the whole social forces and scientifically distinguish the rescue responsibilities of those involved in the rescue policy.
The effective implementation of the aid policy for vagrants and beggars depends on the participation of policy stakeholders, but the responsibilities of different policy stakeholders in the whole aid system should be different:
1. The government provides policy support and material assistance. Establishing and perfecting social assistance policy is the best thing that the government should and can do. The social policy of vagrants and beggars needs comprehensive planning, such as the principle of assistance for vagrants and beggars, the policy of small amount of assistance, the provisions on the rights and obligations of beggars, the policy of paying equal attention to public security management and law enforcement discretion, and the policy of centralized education for professional beggars. In terms of government assistance, the government work in the outflow and inflow areas should focus on poverty alleviation, financial assistance and early intervention; The government of the inflow area focuses on formulating a comprehensive rescue plan-a detailed and comprehensive rescue plan is a refinement of classified and layered assistance to prevent the phenomenon of vagrancy and begging from spreading in depth. 2 institutions to provide care, preventive relief management. "Care" refers to direct material support and life service, and "prevention" refers to preventing the spread of vagrancy and begging through management and persuasion. At present, the rescue management station provides general transitional primary management and diagnosis. "Universal assistance" refers to providing "primary care" such as food, clothing, housing and transportation for people entering the station without setting assistance standards, which embodies the national welfare principle that every citizen has the right to enjoy material assistance when encountering difficulties. However, when vagrants and beggars are unwilling to accept the assistance from the aid station, the government should also provide street assistance to avoid the recurrence of the phenomenon of "compulsory asylum". The Ministry of Civil Affairs and its subordinate provincial and municipal civil affairs departments should establish joint management institutions, joint rescue stations, finance, public security, urban management, health and other related institutions, and put permanent institutions in rescue management stations to provide policy support, comprehensive analysis and coordinated management for urban rescue management. 3. The community provides supportive assistance and integrates resources. In China, mass organizations have always been unique, with two backgrounds of "civil autonomy" and "official role". This organizational feature determines that the biggest function of community in rescue work is to link and integrate various resources of government, market, institutions, enterprises and citizens, and form a rescue network system with different functions, such as community persuasion system, rescue information collection system, volunteer service system and survival guarantee system. Information collection and centralized provision of subsistence care are the most suitable jobs for the community. Community volunteers will collect and manage case information such as begging methods, concentrated places, special behaviors and group activities, and provide first-hand information for decision-making and management. The benign development of international relief work often begins with the intervention of community professional social workers, whose support is very important for arousing beggars' social feelings, self-awareness and behavioral consciousness. If we only rely on the government to send relief materials and provide social welfare services, it will only create a deeper "dependency culture." 4. Citizens accept and participate in the rescue. The implementation of any assistance system needs the public's acceptance and goodwill, and provides appropriate and reasonable assistance. The relief attitude of the residents in the inflow area can directly or indirectly change the lives of vagrants and beggars, and good relief values should be advocated, such as life care, sincere comfort, advice and guidance. Citizens' good acceptance attitude can arouse people's moral sense, and it is also the embodiment of the improvement of the rescue system.