侨批档案的发现和利用对中国区域社会史的研究贡献良多。但发展与挑战共存，侨批档案的利用同时对中国区域社会史研究提出了三大挑战：其一是如何从民间历史文献学角度去解读和理解侨批；其二是如何有意义地叙述普通人的生活；其三是侨批研究如何回应历史学研究的核心问题，即在制度史研究上有何贡献。
The discovery and utilization of Overseas Remittance letters have made great contributions to the studies of regional social history in China. However，development and challenges coexist. The application of Overseas Remittance letter raises three major challenges to the studies of regional social history in China：the first challenge is how to interpret and understand the Overseas Remittance letters from the perspective of the folk historical philology，the second one is how to narrate the life of ordinary people in a meaningful way，and the last challenge is how the Overseas Remittance studies respond to the core issues of historical studies，which is what contributions can be made to the studies of institutional history.
