The potential for deep poverty within the migrant population is real and prevalent.  If a migrant family faces a health crisis, death of a wage earner or even a layoff, it can significantly affect their social well-being for years to come.  Extend that factor into the social structure in which they live, among people who are in as precarious a financial state as they, and it can be a disastrous event from which they will never emerge.  Poverty among migrants must necessarily be regarded as a multidimensional issue rather than simple economic poverty; it includes limited rights and social exclusion.

Another challenge is that currently migrant workers cannot transfer their pension accounts anywhere throughout the nation.  Migrant workers in China often move around looking for work and not only move from city to city, but across province lines as well.  Currently, they are not permitted to transfer their money in cross-province transfer of accounts, so they are forced to withdraw their funds and open new accounts whenever they move.