Xiang Biao is a University Lecturer in Social Anthropology, primarily working on projects in the Flows and Dynamics, Labour Markets, and Urban Change and Settlement clusters.
Biao has conducted extensive field research on migration and social change in China, India and Australia. His main work includes ethnographic studies on a migrant community in Beijing (Transcending Boundaries), migrant workers in south China ("Peasant Workers" and Urban Development), Indian migrant computer professionals (Global "Body Shopping"), and skilled migrants from China (Migrant Networks and Knowledge Exchange).
Biao is currently working on international labor migration from China and transnational governance in east Asia. Conceptually he is interested in globalization, governance, labor and uncertainty. He remains deeply interested in India - China comparison/connections.
Selected Publications
Making Order from Transnational Migration (working title). Princeton University Press. Forthcoming.
Xiang Biao. Ethnic Transnational Middle Classes in Formation. In Gayathri Vasudevan and Ashwani Saith eds. Information Technology and India's Development . Sage. forthcoming.
Global "Body Shopping": An Indian International Labor System in the Information Technology Industry . Princeton University Press. 2007.
A New Mobility Regime in the Making: What Does a Mobile China Mean to the World. Idées pour le débat N°10/2007. Global Governance. Paris: Institut du développement durable et des relations internationales, 2007.
Xiang Biao. 2007. The Making of Mobile Subjects: How Institution Reform and Outmigration Intersect in Northeast China. Development . 50 (4). 69-74.
Xiang Biao. 2007. Productive Outflow of Skills: What India and China Can Learn from Each Other. Asian Population Journal. Vol. 3, No. 2, July: 115-133.
Xiang Biao. 2007. How Far Are the Left-behind Left Behind? A Preliminary Study in Rural China . Place, Space and Population. Volume 13, Issue 3. 179-191.