This chapter examines the Chinese construction industry. It details how market forces and changes in industry configurations have led to a significant growth in informal employment. Moreover, there is considerable variation in how the employment of informal migrants is structured. Migrants are often in a state of “permanent temporariness,” where they are neither strongly tied to their home communities nor integrated into their host communities. These findings are based on qualitative research conducted in Beijing in 2004–2005. In addition to participant observation at several construction job sites, enclaves, nongovernmental agencies (NGOs), and street labor markets, interviews were conducted with migrant workers, managers, labor contractors, NGO workers, lawyers, and government officials. These data are supplemented with secondary data from newspapers, scholarly journals, and organizational documents.