Résumé. This article aims to rethink the issue of the incor­po­ra­tion of China’s internal migrants into Chinese cities through the lens of resi­den­tial issues. My approach differs from exis­ting studies in three ways : it “de-orien­ta­lizes” the lite­ra­ture on internal migrants in China, which has prima­rily ques­tioned the rele­vance of Western liberal citi­zen­ship theory in the Chinese case ; it “demi­gran­tizes” the research on migrants, which is overw­hel­mingly centred on a concep­tion of migrants as a homo­ge­neous social group in compe­ti­tion with the urban citi­zens ; it “de-hùkǒuizes” the ques­tion of incor­po­ra­tion into the city, by approa­ching it from more than just a legal and admi­nis­tra­tive angle. By looking at migrants’ ways of “inha­bi­ting the city”, my study does not dismiss the effects of legal status, but also empha­sizes other factors that migrants consider crucial for their urban ancho­ring. The results high­light highly selec­tive “top-down” mecha­nisms of inte­gra­tion with regards to migrants, which also contri­bute to the crea­tion and perpe­tua­tion of urban inter­stices of infor­ma­lity. These inter­sti­ce­sare the spaces where migrants develop their own resi­den­tial and long-term ancho­ring stra­te­gies in the city.

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