The migration is an inevitable social phenomenon in a city's development, and has its own changing tendency. The early settlers in Shanghai in modern times were mainly from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. However, they were soon replaced by those from Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The occurrence of such a change was closely related to the Small Sword Society uprising. It gave a fatal blow to the development of former settlers. As a result, they had to change their immigration route and then went to some countries south beyond the South China Sea as a better choice. Relying on their advantages in geography, customs and business, those from Jiangsu and Zhejiang became a major part of migrants in Shanghai. Meanwhile, the Small Sword Society uprising brought about changes of Shanghai's concession structure from separate to mixing residence of Chinese and foreigners. It also brought about a development of the concession, thus making Shanghai a chief gathering city for migrants and quickening the speed of migration to Shanghai.