An Analysis about the Dilemma and Coping Strategies of Supporting the Aged in Different Areas of the Rural Old Drifters

As more and more young people from rural areas enter urban for development and settle down in cities, their parents come to the city where their children live in order to reunite with their children or take care of their grandchildren, such a group of elderly people who take intergenerational support as the main purpose is called the "old drifters". After the "old drifters" enter the city, they fell into a great dilemma in every aspects, which is manifested in the low level of economic support, the lack of living care resources, the neglect of spiritual comfort, and the imperfection of medical security.The formation of these dilemmas is the result of a combination of various factors, including the elderly's physical and mental decline, family's center of gravity downward, inadequate social acceptance and restrictions on state welfare. Therefore, the solution to the dilemma of "old drifters" depends on the combined efforts of four aspects including personal self-regulation, family intergenerational integration, social assistance and acceptance, and national policy improvement.