This research investigates into livelihood problems of ecological?migration families in Nangqian County

Qinghai Province by using the methods like participatory observations

in-depth interviews and questionnaires surveys. It discovers that the engineered migration provides many opportunities for those ecological?migration but there are still many difficulties for those people during the transitional period which can be summarized in the four areas—the migrants face the challenge to mange their basic livelihood; they can not find employment opportunities; many of them are driven into poverty due to the cost of health care; they also have difficulty in getting social identity in the new social environment. By pin-pointing these four areas of challenges

the research proposes the following six strategies for a sustainable development: increasing compensation for moving expenses; investing more in human capital development; better financing entrepreneurial activities; creating non-pasturing job opportunities; perfecting the social safety-net; paying more attention to the issues of community building.