With the accelerating process of urbanization, some migrantworkers have settled in the cities, while some migrant workers have left the cities back home after working many years in the cities. This article analyses migrantworkers’ selection mechanism of urban life will from the perspectives of economic benefits, institutional and resource factors, relative deprivation and social network factors based on CGSS data in 2006. The analysis shows that real estate status and the cognitive socioeconomic status are important factors which affect migrantworkers to make a choice where to live.