RESEARCHING INTERNATIONAL LABOR MIGRATION IN ASIA

This article focuses on research on international labor migration in Asia, a region marked by intense migration in the last four decades. The review covers migration research undertaken from the post-1970s to the present. The growing significance of international migration in the region has stimulated the production of evidence-based knowledge on Asian migration in Asia. This is indicated by the growing literature on migration-related questions, the development of research centers focused on migration, and the development of research networks in the region. Although migration research is thriving, future efforts should aim toward theory building and establishing the links between internal and international migration.     

Emigration dynamics from and within South Asia

This review of current knowledge about emigration dynamics from and within South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) opens with a brief history of the three phases of emigration from the area since the 1830s (plantation labor; postindependence to the UK, US, Canada, and Australia; and labor migration to the oil-exporting countries). The influence of the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh is also covered as are British colonial and commonwealth policies. It is noted that migration data are incomplete and that India exhibits an ambivalence about collecting such information. The discussion then turns to emigration since 1970 and considers permanent migration from South Asia to the traditional receivers; South Asian asylum seekers in Europe; South Asian refugees, illegal migrants, migrant workers (flows and destinations), the stock of contract migrant workers (and their characteristics); returnee migrant workers; and skill levels. Analysis is provided of macro level determinants of emigrations such as gross national product (level and growth), the general demographic and social situation, labor force growth and structure, poverty and inequality, and internal and international migration. Environmental factors causing displacement in Southern Asia include floods, cyclones, river bank erosion, drought, and desertification. Global warming could displace millions of people in the region, and development projects have contributed to displacement. The remainder of the report covers political and ethnic factors, micro-factors influencing migration decision-making, the policies of sending and receiving countries, the consequences of emigration, and the potential for migration in the future.     

PARTICIPATORY SPATIAL KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Different types of spatial knowledge (expert, sectoral, tacit and community) are strategic resources in urban planning and management. Participatory spatial knowledge management is a major method for eliciting various types of knowledge, providing a platform for knowledge integration and informing local action and public policy. Knowledge types linked to a specific geographical locality can be integrated through geographical information systems. Recent developments in geographical information and communication technology (geoICT) have extended the opportunities for participatory spatial knowledge production, use and exchange. However, data reliability of user-generated content, social exclusion due to dependence on technology and the interpretation and implications of digital maps are major concerns. The challenge is how to integrate and utilize multiple knowledge sources for improving urban management and governance. This paper integrates the literature on knowledge types and knowledge production processes with available geoICT tools for the production, use and exchange of knowledge sources and applies it to examples from Asia, Africa and Latin America. From this review, we provide a heuristic framework for assessing the extent to which participatory spatial knowledge management tools can be instrumental on several fronts. We argue that technological developments of knowledge production have not fully addressed important issues related to accountability, empowerment, control and use of knowledge. Moreover, these developments may foster social exclusion, which could detract from the benefits of participatory spatial knowledge management in the context of urban sustainability.     

Producing Migrant Domestic Work: Exploring the Everyday Political Economy of Malaysia's ‘Maid Shortage’

Abstract

The article considers how the employment of domestic workers by middle-class Malaysian households has been thrown into flux by the imposition of bans on the sending of workers by states such as Indonesia and Cambodia, as well as the decline in numbers of women seeking employment as domestic workers in Malaysia and rising employment costs. This article does not seek to focus on the high-level policy negotiations and disputes that have come to characterize systems of temporary return migration for domestic work in Asia, but to focus in on the everyday political economies (of social reproduction, work, and everyday agency) that constitute the conditions of possibility within which bilateral disputes and labour agreements between Southeast Asian states take shape. We examine three dimensions of migration for domestic work in Southeast Asia in ways that bring together literatures on everyday life and social reproduction. These interconnected yet distinct dimensions are (a) the relationship between strategies to boost remittances and flows of workers from some of the most impoverished parts of Southeast Asia; (b) the centrality of low-cost migrant domestic workers to Malaysian middle-class ‘success stories’, and (c) the day-to-day production of ‘good’ worker subjects—a process that is actively and constantly resisted by workers themselves. The article provides important insights into the mechanisms through arenas of everyday life—and the household in particular—are transformed; becoming sites for the ever widening and deepening of the market economy.     

Europe’s Migration Agreements with Migrant‐Sending Countries in the Global South: A Critical Review

The past two decades have seen the steady emergence of various bilateral and multilateral migration agreements between Europe and migrant‐sending countries in the global South. This article provides a critical assessment of the way the EU – and individual countries such as Spain, France and Italy – have played active roles in reshaping old and developing new strategies for keeping migration under control while opening up new opportunities for “regular” migration. It also discusses the extent to which migration agreements help migrant‐sending countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America to optimize the link between migration and development. Based on an analysis of the contents of the migration agreements and their implementation, it has become obvious that there is still a long way to go to achieve “fair multilateralism” and create “win‐win” situations between the EU and the poorer migrant‐sending countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.     

The Education‐Migration Industry: International Students,Migration Policy and the Question of Skills

This special section specifically focuses on student‐migrants and the way they are being catered to by an emerging education‐migration industry. The articles included build upon the observation that especially within the Asia‐Pacific region there is an increasing conflation and entanglement between categories of international students and skilled migrants. This has led to an emerging “industry” that facilitates study‐abroad trajectories and acts as broker for two‐step migration pathways. This Introduction aims to situate the research presented here within the broader context of a burgeoning field of research which examines the growing popularity of international education across the Asia‐Pacific region; the way its emergence is increasingly entangled with specific ambitions that skilled migration programmes cater to; and the way highly regulated skilled migration programmes have given rise to a migration industry in general.     

International migration: an assessment for the '90s

A quarter century ago, the world of international migration looked much different than it does today. International migration was then favorable regarded in many parts of the world. Today, this mood has soured. Guestworkers in Germany in 1989, particularly Turks, are the subject of widespread hostility and a growing anti-immigrant political party. France, too, has developed a significant anti-immigrant political party and now facilitates the repatriation of unemployed Algerian nationals with cash assistance. In the US, a chapter thought closed forever in 1964 might well be reopened as the federal government, in 1989, will decide whether or not to admit replenishment agricultural workers. In the Arab region, the Palestine Liberation Organization was created in 1964 to represent one of the world's largest refugee population - the 1 million Palestinians who fled during the 1'947-1949 fighting and their offspring. Today, Africa contains an estimated 4-5 million refugees. In Asia, the Gulf of Tonkin crisis in 1964 served as a pretext to escalate the war in Indochina that would create millions of refugees. Little concern was expressed 25 years ago about illegal migration from developing countries. Asia, Africa, and Latin America seemed to lie outside the usual path of international migration. A conference on international migration was held at Bellagio, Italy, in July 1988. The contributions comprising this volume were presented at the Bellagio Conference. Each contribution approaches the subject matter of international migration from a distinctive theoretical, disciplinary, or thematic perspective. This volume therefore reflects a large measure of the scholarly diversity that coexists in international migration studies. One of the themes of the conference is the realization that states vitally affect international migration and are greatly affected by the phenomenon. The Bellagio conferees also agreed on the importance of comparative research to greater scientific understanding of international migration. In a world of increasing interdependency, the inevitable effect of a knowledge shortfall is a glaring gap in understanding.     

Asian Transnational Families in New Zealand: Dynamics and Challenges

Since the 1990s, Asia has emerged as the major contributor of migration flows into New Zealand. Settler migration, tourism, international business and more recently, international education make up the diverse flows of Asian peoples into the country. This paper explores the changing dynamics of Asian transnational families over the last two decades, with a special focus on the experiences of young people within these families. In the early 1990s, bi-local families were commonly known as "astronaut" families, in which one or both parents returned to their countries of origin to work, leaving their children to be educated in New Zealand. Over time the structures of these families have changed, as many young migrants relocated back to their former homeland or re-migrated to a third country, while "astronaut parents" rejoined their spouses either in the origin or destination. More recently, the educational migration of international students from countries in Asia has given rise to another form of transnational family, in which young people enter New Zealand as international students and some subsequently become residents. In this paper, the experiences of these young people are explored within the wider context of family strategies for maximising benefits through spatially extended networks on the one hand, and government initiatives and immigration policy changes that have been taking place in New Zealand since the 1990s on the other.     

The demographic situation as a factor in emigration from the USSR

This is an analysis of recent trends in internal migration within and emigration from the former Soviet Union. The study focuses on domestic social tensions and interethnic conflicts affecting migration. The author concludes that continued growth of the rural population, particularly in Central Asia, combined with growing unemployment, declining living standards, and economic stagnation will mean that Russia will have to repatriate a considerable proportion of Russians from other republics. Consideration is also given to a predicted demand for immigration from the non-Russian population of Central Asia. This is a translation of a Russian article in "Migratsiia naseleniia", Moscow, Russia, Russian Academy of Sciences, 1992, pp. 6-31.     

A Multi Sited Approach to Analysis of Destination Immigration Data: An Asian Example

There has been a bias in standard international migration data collection and research toward immigration and destinations while emigration origins have been neglected. This has hampered our ability to provide a substantial empirical base for migration and development policy decision making in origin areas. While improvement of migration data collection in origin countries remains an important priority, this paper argues that much can be learned about emigration from low income countries from immigration data in high income destinations. Migration stock and flow data from Australia are used to provide information on the scale and nature of movement between Asia and Australia. It establishes that there are important but different flows in both directions which belie traditional conceptualisations of south‐north migration and this has significant implications for the effects of migration on economic development.     

The UN Global Compact for Safe,Orderly and Regular Migration: Its Impact on Asia

This article focuses on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), a landmark international document that builds on the momentum of a decade of initiatives at the international level on migration governance, and its impact on Asia from the perspective of South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, and South Korea. While none of these countries voted against the adoption of the GCM, there are significant differences in how individual countries approached the commitments made in the GCM. These perspectives were articulated in a webinar hosted by Metropolis Asia on 20 June 2018 and in governmental statements made at the UN international conference when the GCM was adopted. This article also discusses the challenges confronting the implementation of the GCM. While the Compact resulted from inclusive and intensive negotiations and many compromises, the road towards realizing its goals will be at least as challenging as the road that led to its adoption. In spite of these challenges, the GCM is a ground‐breaking representation of the first multilateral framework for migration governance. Its success rests upon the recognition that addressing the challenges and maximizing the benefits of migration require true international cooperation, renewed commitment and meaningful action on the commitments agreed to.     

Migrant workers: a passage from India to the Middle East. Demographic and social-psychological implications and policy consideration

The author first gives an overview of labor emigration from India since the nineteenth century, noting particularly the trends in Indian migration to Middle Eastern and North African countries. The demand for expatriate labor in West Asia for the years 1985-1990 is projected, and consideration is given to differential labor migration according to skill category. Focusing on Indian emigrants currently working in the Gulf States, the author discusses conceptual problems in examining international migration as well as the social-psychological consequences and the societal impact of migration.     

THE ARCHIVE STATE AND THE FEAR OF POLLUTION: FROM THE OPIUM WARS TO FU-MANCHU

This article considers the relationship between the production of a British imperial archive on China and the global politics of empire over the last century and a half. Drawing upon the theoretical work of Bruno Latour, Gayatri Spivak and Thomas Richards,the archive is explored as a coherent set of material practices designed to decode and recode China and other colonized territories. Imagined as an interface between knowledge and the state, the British archive required the establishment of an epistemological network designed to generate knowledge on China. The knowledge so produced was then used to manipulate local scenes and to provide intelligence in ‘the Great Game’, the continuing contest with Russia over domination in Central Asia. Because of its desire for comprehensive knowledge of other peoples and places, the archive also generated its own phantasms, ones which threatened to undermine and destroy empire. This process of self-haunting is explored through the figure of Fu-Manchu, a discernible mutation of epistemological empire, and linked to the cold war which emerged on the Eurasian landmass after 1945.     

Gendering the Politics of Migration 1

Although every aspect of the migration process is shaped by political factors and migration presents many political challenges on the domestic and international levels, the attention of political scientists in the United States and Europe has been limited to relatively few topics, including control over entry and exit, and issues of incorporation and citizenship. Work that considers the political aspects of migration from a gender perspective constitutes an even smaller body of work. In considering the contribution that political science might make to our understanding of gendered migration, this essay points both to some pioneering studies of gendered patterns of migration and incorporation, and also to the growing concern with gender among international organizations and policy makers. Interestingly, the essay shows that it is scholars in neighboring disciplines who have more often have taken up questions of governance and the development of gender‐fair policy towards migrants. The essay raises questions about the relationship between disciplinary boundaries and topical areas and also about the ways in which regional contexts shape the nature of scholarly inquiry by contrasting work on Asia with that in Europe and the United States.     

Navigating a Hostile Terrain: Refugees and Human Rights in Southeast Asia

Countries in Southeast Asia serve as origins, transit routes, and destinations for an increasing number of refugees, asylum seekers, and other people displaced by conflict and persecution. In this article, I consider existing academic literature on refugees and forced migration and situate current trends and processes related to refugees in Southeast Asia within such work. I begin by surveying sociology material on refugees and forced migration processes in general, also drawing from related fields of human geography and interdisciplinary refugee studies. I then review current mixed migration trends and corresponding state responses in the context of globalization and contemporary conflict in Southeast Asia, placing refugee movements within this setting. Finally, using examples from the region, I consider two rough areas of inquiry in need of further sociological exploration – (i) purposive transnational refugee actions and processes and (ii) the dynamic social spaces created and developed out of refugee migration. Human rights implications of these issues are considered throughout, and suggestions to reconsider human rights protection beyond nation‐state‐focused models are given.     

Migration among East and Southeast Asian Economies

Conventional studies focus on why migration occurs between a particular pair of places. Our study asks a different question: what characteristics of the origin and destination places can explain migration flows between any two places in a region. Our study explores how economic, political, and geographic factors influence bilateral migration flows within a region in which various countries are increasingly being integrated into the regional as well as into the global economy. Drawing from diverse data sources, we explore migration flows among various economies in East and Southeast Asia between 2000 and 2005 and 2005 and 2010. Our analyses yielded two major findings. First, the relationship between economic factors and the volume of migration flows depends on the overall economy in the region. Second, the findings reveal a consistently robust and significant relationship between geographic proximity and migration flow. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Migration Planning Among Female Prospective Labour Migrants from Nepal: A Comparison of First‐Time and Repeat‐Migrants

As international female labour migration has increased, so too have efforts to prevent the exploitation of labour migrants. However, evidence to underpin prevention efforts remains limited, with little known about labour migrants’ migration planning processes. Using data from a survey of female prospective labour migrants from Nepal, this article compares socio‐demographics and migration‐planning processes between first‐time and repeat‐migrants. We identified several factors which might increase repeat‐migrants’ vulnerability to exploitation during the migration process, or obstruct their engagement in pre‐migration interventions: more rapid migration planning than first‐time migrants; lower involvement in community groups; and a perception that they already have the knowledge they need. Only one‐third of repeat‐migrants planned to go to the same destination and 42 per cent to work in the same sector as previously. With repeat‐migration a common livelihoods strategy, it is crucial that interventions are guided by evidence on the needs of both first‐time‐ and repeat‐migrants.     

Alternative Regionalism from Below: Democratizing ASEAN's Migration Governance

Most literature on migration governance has addressed the global level, and it has done so primarily from a state‐centric and top‐down perspective, with little regard to the role of civil society organizations in shaping its direction. Moreover, in an institutional sense, except for the EU, the regional level has only received scant attention, which is surprising given the significance of intra‐regional migration flows elsewhere. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a case in point. Although there are few direct channels of engagement for civil society, the vibrant migrant rights community in Asia has been capitalizing on, and creating, opportunities at multiple levels including the regional. Our argument is that this creative use of channels of engagement in combined form at multiple levels can have democratizing potential.