九0年代以後城市貧困人口無論在數量或比重方面都不斷增長，城市貧困階層正在形成。由於目前改革的重心是國營企業，因此大多數研究城市貧困問題的目光也多放在國企改革造成的下崗職工的貧困問題上，而對牽涉生計問題更多的農民工貧困問題卻少有涉及。本文將以從農村遷移或流動到城市謀求發展的農民工為對象，指出現存制度對農民工不利之處，是造成城市農民工貧困的重要因素之一，並著重描述農民工貧困現況與嚴重性。

In mainland China's urban areas， the number of poor people has increased since the 1990s and a poor class is in the making. As the present focus of economic reform is on the state-owned enterprises， research on this phenomenon has almost all been focused on questions concerning laid-off workers of these enterprises. However， in addition to this group， there is a large， mostlyignored force of peasant-workers moving from the rural areas to the cities. Therefore， the situation of these peasant-workers warrant our concern. This article will study the circumstances of these people and the impact of the existing welfare system on their life.