ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on rural–urban migration in the post-reform era. Three surveys are used in this chapter: the migrant household survey in 13 cities in six provinces (hereafter referred to as the migrant household survey); the survey of firms in Zhujiang Delta, Guangdong Province in which Japanese companies have invested (hereafter referred to as the Japanese investment survey); and the survey of the day-labourer market in Yunnan Province (hereafter referred to as the day-labourer survey). This chapter has two main tasks. The first task is to compare the effect of human, political and network capital on the job search methods and income generation of migrant peasants. The second is to consider the implications of the social network role in out-migration from two angles: regional disparities in the mobility of the rural labour force, and the characteristics of gatekeepers at the bottom end of the urban labour market.
