Introduction

In contemporary China, a key element of the changing social structure has been the major impact of the new market economy as part of the economic reforms of the late 1970s. This was initiated by the central government’s modernization project, named as ‘reform and opening up’. Rural–urban labour migration is one of the most visible phenomena of the economic reforms, in terms of urbanization and industrialization, offering rural people opportunities to work in non-agricultural sectors, and to leave the rural household, so as to generate income and thus overcome poverty. It has been a remarkable intervention in both developing urban industrialization and rural household economic development and modernization. In response, studies on Chinese rural–urban labour migration have focused on the macro level of economic, social and political structures; for instance, many studies have addressed the household registration system accompanying the rural/urban division and social inequality.