ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the development of the private business sector in Lhasa, capital city of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of the People's Republic of China, and its relation to migration from other provinces. The issue of rural labor flows into the TAR has long been debated, almost exclusively in the context of the ongoing political struggle over the status of the region and as part of the macro political strategy, with very little reference to matters of economic development or established migration theory.
