Routledge Rural Migrants in Urban China - Routledge Contemporary China Series

This scholarly work examines the phenomenon of 'villages in the city' that emerged across China's urban landscape as millions of rural migrants relocated to sprawling metropolitan areas. Unlike shanties and favelas in other developing nations, these informal urban enclaves represent a distinctly Chinese model: owner-occupied settlements developed semi-formally by ex-farmers turned small-developers and landlords who rent high-density rooms to rural migrants. The book explores the unique tension between China's economic modernisation vision and the persistence of these unplanned urban communities, analysing how transient urbanism shapes both migrant experiences and city development strategies in contemporary China.