Urban Migrants in China

This book focuses on the background, migration, and settlement of new migrants in China. It also examines the status of their social networks, the role of urban society, social security, and future planning. Based on semi-structured interviews, the book analyzes these aspects of new urban migrants and argues that:

- Intellectual migrants, with their strong educational background, are willing to engage in urbanization and have clear entry strategies.
- Labor migrants find it is challenging for labor migrants to receive the same welfare as citizens and they are subject to significant segregation in urban societies due to existing policies and market economy conditions.
- Operational migrants have stronger settlement and family-oriented tendencies compared to labor migrants.


Zhou Daming is a Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology and the Vice-Director of Historical Anthropology Research Center. Zhou is the Professor and Doctoral Supervisor of Sociology and Anthropology department in Sun Yat-sen University. He is the Director of Immigrants and Ethnic Research Center in Sun Yat-sen University. He is also the Committee Member of Committee of Social Science, Ministry of Education P.R.C. and the expert in the review group of National Social Science Fund, the Vice-President of China Union of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences and the Vice-Chairman of Chinese Association of Ethnology. His major research areas are migrates, urban and country development, ethnic groups and regional culture. Zhou's representative works include the Study about Casual Laborers in China's Southeast Coastal Cities (Sun Yat-Sen University Press, 2007), The Vicissitudes of Phoenix House (Social Science Academic Press, 2006), and the Desire for Surviving: Anthropological Investigation on Migrant Workers Flow (Sun Yat-Sen University Press, 2005).