Rural migrants often enter the urban labour market as unskilled workers, and many are unable to obtain permanent household registration status (Hukou) at their urban destination. Estimates of the floating migrant population show a sharply increasing trend amidst economic reforms and the relaxation of the Hukou system: from approximately 11 million in 1982, to 30.5 million in 1987, to 79 million in 2000 (Liang 2001; Liang and Ma 2004; Chen and Liang 2007). As social welfare benefits such as education, health care, insurance, and housing are linked to one’s Hukou, unrecognised migrants face exclusion from these basic facilities in their host destination.