as the largest labour flow in human history, the recent rise in
migration in china has opened up unprecedented opportunities for
millions of chinese to rearrange their lives. at the same time, this
process has also posed great challenges to chinese migrants,
especially female migrants, who not only face a bias against
‘outsiders’ but also have a greater need for reproductive
health-related services in their migratory destinations. based on
data collected via multiple sources in shanghai, china’s largest
metropolis, this study profiles the changing characteristics of
female migrants, presents data on self-reported symptoms of
reproductive health-related problems and knowledge on reproductive
health issues, compares maternal and child health measures between
migrants and local residents, and examines factors related to
reproductive health knowledge and migrants’ access to health care in
urban china. results of this study show a relatively low level of
self-reported reproductive health problems among female migrants,
coupled with a relatively high level of ignorance in knowledge
related to std. both self-reported health status and knowledge of
reproductive health are related to migrants’ educational attainment
and length of stay in the urban destination. this study also finds
ample evidence that female migrants’ access to urban health care is
limited by a number of institutional barriers.