Rural-urban Migrants in China: How Are Their Health and Health Services Access Constrained?

China is experiencing a dramatically increasing process of rural-urban migration, which is almost parallel with the phenomenal economic growth and development in China in the last decades. Given the massive scale of rural-urban migration in China, the health services access and health constraints not only matter to rural-urban migrants but also have important implications for broad public health concerns. However, this issue has not been paid enough attention in academic research. While the literature focuses on describing the demographic trends and economic effects of rural-urban migration, very little in-depth research has been done on migrant health and the constrained access to health services among migrants in urban China. This study focuses on the multifaceted reality of health constraints and health services access among migrants by originally exploring the social strata, social networks, and the understanding of health and health services among migrants. Furthermore, this study investigates the health constraints and health services access of rural-urban migrants in the absence of equal social protection by the government.