Internal Migration and Health in China : Choices, Constraints and Implications

This book focuses on the multifaceted reality of social and health constraints and health services access among migrants in China, by originally exploring the social strata, social networks, and the understanding of health and health services among migrants. Furthermore, this book investigates the health constraints and health services access of rural-urban migrants in the absence of equal social protection by the government. It argues that the main obstacles to access health services are not only the shortage of financial resources among rural-urban migrants, but also lie in the institutional blindness regarding health security provision, rural-urban dualism and the household registration system in China. The book highlights the key function that social networks play in health and health services access among migrants in China, which has rarely been discussed in previous studies. And it also discusses the understanding of health among migrants, and further analyses that althoughmany migrants have not formed proper understanding of the connotation of health and have limited knowledge of health, prime responsibility should not be put on the migrants because their poor understanding of health mainly results from their rural perspective while health and health services access depend on the social-economic environment in which they live and work.

This book would be of interest to people in migration studies, social exclusion and social welfare studies and to people interested in rural-urban migration and health in China.