Miao migrants toShanghai: Multilocality, invisibility and ethnicity

This paper reports on a recent research project into rural–urban labour migrants in S hanghai, C hina, 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 C hina and considers some of the literature on rural–urban migration in C hina which may be considered as relevant to ethnicity. The case of a M iao 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.