1.Background

More than 25 years of the Reform and Opening-up^[1]has witnessed large-scale population mobility in China. Currently the “floating” population reached up to 150 millions，more than 10 percent of total population（1.3 billions）. Among all migrants in China，rural-urban migrant laborers must be the largest group，whose population rose to 120 millions in 2004^[2]. There have been a number of researches，which study rural-urban labor migration and migrant workers in China，focusing on migrant workers’ disadvantages in contrast with urban residents with urban official residence（Hukou）^[3] of the cities where they live，but few build up their analyses from a perspective of poverty analysis.

1.1 Poverty issues in China

After the Reform and Opening-up initiated in China in late 1970s，the government started to use the word “poverty”referring to the poverty among people who live in rural area with their annual income less than an official poverty line，which fluctuates according to the price index. For instance，the line was set up as 678 yuan（about 85 USD）per capita per year in 2004 and there were 26 millions rural people below this line，approximately 3.3 percent of total rural population. Besides the establishment of poverty line，there are another two policies to demonstrate rural poverty：the policies designating “counties in poverty” and “villages in poverty” in terms of the level of local economic development. In total，592 counties（out of 3000 counties）and 148 thousands villages have been officially signed as “poor” in China.

In the meanwhile，rural poverty reduction became one of main governmental policies after the middle 1980s. As a result of the policies as well as economic development，the incidence of poverty had plummeted from 250 millions in 1978 to 30 millions in 2000，according to a governmental report^[4].

In contrast with rural poverty，urban poverty in China is called “new poverty” and had not attracted public concerns until the middle 1990s（Solinger，D.，2000），partly in that urban residents in general had enjoyed higher income and better welfare than their rural counterparts before the urban reform started in the middle 1980s，and to a great extent before the middle 1990s while the government further reformed the system of State Owned Enterprises（SOEs）to build up a so-called “socialist market-oriented economy”，which led to a number of workers laid off from their enterprises. Together with the reform，the strategy “Make some people rich first” also contributed to the emergence of poverty in cities. In order to alleviate the “new poverty”，the central government established the Ministry of Labor and Social Security to take responsibility for the employment and livelihoods of the laid-off people. In addition，the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued the policy of “minimal living support”（Dibao）in 1999，which supports those people whose monthly income is less than a standard，and the number of people relying on “Dibao” had reached up to 22 millions in urban China by the end of2004.

1.2 Problems of poverty definition

The dichotomy of poverty seemingly covers the entire population in China，i. e.，both rural and urban people. However，some researchers argued that the policies actually neglect the numerous migrant workers in cities：on the one hand，they have left rural area and thus are not covered by the policies of rural poverty reduction，and on the other hand，they are working and living in cities without urban Hukou，and thus not covered by the policies of urban poverty reduction. Therefore，there lies a policy gap between these two types of governmental anti-poverty policies（Huang Ping，2004）.

Furthermore，the governmental policies define poverty only in terms of economic or income dimension，and the main purpose of poverty reduction is to increase the poor people’s income. However，more and more researchers argued that poverty should not be defined and understood from a single dimension，and we should go further，as what some researchers argued，and understand poverty in terms of capability（education and health）（Sen，A.，1999；Zhang Xiaojun，et al.，2005）as well as social exclusion（Levitas，R.，1998）. If so，the purposes of poverty reduction should also include strengthening capability and promoting social inclusion.

These discussions infuse the author an idea to explore migrant workers’ poverty in China from a new perspective. Moreover，the existing researches related built up a strong foundation for the study of migrant workers’ poverty in this paper；for example，many researches discussed and studied migrant workers’ disadvantages，social network（social capital），employment difficulties，right protection，and etc.（Tan Shen，2003）. Therefore，it would be significant to study the issue of migrant workers from a perspecti