Earlier versions of the papers in this volume were presented at the "Regional Conference on Migration and Development in Asia", held in Lanzhou, China, 14-16 March 2005. The conference, hosted by China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was organized by IOM and funded by Britain's Department for International Development (DFID).

Though there has been increasing attention paid to the potential role migration can play in fostering development, most of that attention has tended to focus on international migration. Internal migration has been somewhat neglected but is also an extremely important policy area.

One of the key aims of the Lanzhou conference was to identify more effective ways to enhance the benefits of internal migration for poverty reduction and development, and how this could be complemented by strategies to ensure that migrants have decent working conditions and access to health and social services.