ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an analysis of the data obtained and is aimed at examining trends in migration and studying its ethnic identity and cultural implications. The jobs that the Uyghur rural population who have moved to towns obtain, their preference for occupations, and the conditions of working sites are significant variables to look at for identifying how ethnic identity operates in relation to migration. There are three broad phases in the extent and patterns of Uyghur mobility. In the first phase, from 1950 to the mid-1980s, Uyghur migration declined dramatically in both scale and the range of destinations. The second phase is marked by a resurgence of migration of the Uyghur population from rural areas to towns in the early 1980s in Xinjiang, as elsewhere, due to China's new policies of reform and opening to the world. The third phase marked at the beginning of the 1990s an even greater surge of migration of Uyghur peasants to towns of Xinjiang.
