This book offers a sociological analysis as well as a theological discussion of China's internal migration since the marketization reform in 1978. It documents the social and political processes that encompass the experiences of internal migrants from the countryside to the city during China's integration into the global economy. Informed by sociological analysis and narratives of the urban poor, this volume reconstructs the political, economic, social and spiritual dimensions of this urban underclass in China who made up the economic backbone of the Asian superpower.

Li Ma has a PhD in sociology from Cornell University. She is the Senior Research Fellow at the Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College in Grand Rapids. She is the coauthor with Jin Li of Surviving the State, Remaking the Church (Pickwick Publications, 2017).