Miao migrants to Shanghai: Multilocality, invisibility and ethnicity

Abstract

This paper reports on a recent research project into rural-urban labour migrants in Shanghai, China, who are members of ethnic minorities, inquiring into the role of ethnicity in national labour migration. It introduces some of the main features of the ethnic nationalities (minzu) in China and considers some of the literature on rural-urban migration in China which may be considered as relevant to ethnicity. The case of a Miao minority family in Shanghai is described in detail to argue that what remains important to them in the city is not their formal ethnic affiliation (minzu) so much as a sub-ethnic identity of connectedness and intimacy, importantly related to kinship and place.