ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the impact on identity of young people with disabilities moving from rural foster care to cities in China. It draws on interviews with young people with disabilities, and rural foster family members, in the broader rural context of Chinese social policy. The chapter introduces the background to understanding Chinese urban-rural alternative care policies and young people leaving care to provide insights into the contextual factors that shape the experience of young people with disabilities leaving rural foster care in China. The findings about identity and young people with disabilities leaving rural foster care are structured against Mendes's predicted challenges to relationships, connections, housing, education and employment when young people move from rural areas to the city. Historically, because of the restrictions on urban migration from the hukou registration system, connections of people from rural areas rarely extend to cities, beyond their connections to other rural migrants.
