This study examines female internal migration in China under climate-related shocks within a push-and-pull framework. It combines longitudinal microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (2010-2022) with city-level climate and economic indicators. Gender-specific probit models assess how environmental stress, local labor markets, and household characteristics shape women’s migration. Droughts, heatwaves, and floods act as push factors, and urban economic opportunities as pull factors, with marked heterogeneity across regions and groups. The response to climate stress is itself gendered: Education enables women to move, whereas the burden of elderly care holds them in place.
Refugee Protection in Southeast Asia: Between Humanitarianism and Sovereignty argues that Southeast Asia, often viewed as deficient due to limited participation in the 1951 Refugee Convention, has instead developed a distinct postcolonial refugee regime that warrants analysis on its own terms. The present work builds on two earlier foundational works. Davies (2008) emphasized norm contestation and state resistance, inaugurating the dominant view in refugee studies of “persistent rejection” of the 1951 Refugee Convention regime by ASEAN states; on the other hand, Moretti (2022) challenged that view by framing refugee protection initiatives of states in the region—including by those that are non-convention parties—as somehow consistent with customary international law. The present book advances the conversation to the next level by providing a more plural, empirically grounded, but theoretically integrated account of Southeast Asian refugee governance, one that extends earlier accounts beyond law-centered and state-centric discourses.
This paper adopts an actor-centered perspective to investigate how gendered ideologies permeate migration narratives in Malaysia. It sheds light on how policy-relevant actors narratively construct the dynamics of female labor migration, with an emphasis on domestic worker migration. This research found the presence of narratives that construct women migrant domestic workers as “victims” of abuse who are in need of protection, often connected to trafficking narratives, and whose work is undervalued and overlooked. Yet, despite such powerful discourses, migrant domestic workers remain largely unprotected in law, policy, and practice in Malaysia.
In Europe, highly skilled workers are often portrayed in discussions as easily integrating into a host society, which simultaneously suggests positive social mobility outcomes. This paper addresses the experiences of highly qualified Indian migrants in Germany. It highlights that labor-market integration and career development are much more complex and uneven than is often presented. It analyzes the ways in which valuation and state categorization at the systemic level, brokerage at the organizational level, and opportunity hoarding at the interactional level act as mechanisms that create and perpetuate drawbacks for foreign professionals. Finally, the paper underscores the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind varying outcomes among migrants and advocates addressing multi-level inequalities within highly skilled migrant communities.
This article examines how Vietnamese marriage migrant mothers in Taiwan cultivate transnational identity for their mixed-ethnic children under stigma and patriarchal control. Based on longitudinal qualitative research with 25 mothers in Southern and Eastern Taiwan, this study analyzes maternal strategies in language, rituals, food, and music. Findings reframe mothers as active cultural agents whose covert everyday resistance, including whispering Vietnamese cooking heritage dishes and singing folk songs, fosters a negotiated, hyphenated transnational identity for mixed-ethnic children. The study extends Scott's everyday resistance into family life, distinguishes everyday multiculturalism from state-led multicultural policy, and foregrounds embodied dimensions of identity formation.
This paper analyzes South Korea’s pilot foreign caregiver project from the perspective of the sending country, the Philippines—an angle often less visible in existing debates. Drawing on Migration Infrastructure and Relational Inequality theories, the study argues that labor precarity in the pilot project is a structural outcome co-produced by the institutional reclassification of domestic work as “professional caregiving” and the social closure through visa regulation and labor governance. Based on a focus group discussion and semi-structured interviews with Philippine stakeholders and an analysis of the Korean service mobile apps, Daeri Jubu (Proxy Homemaker) and Dolbom Plus (Care Plus), and an unpublished report from the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (KBIZ), the study examines how care workers are constructed and governed within transnational migration infrastructures. The findings indicate that the state-led professional narrative is often misaligned with the material conditions under the pilot project. This study conceptualizes “floating care” as a structural positioning where workers are symbolically elevated as professionals yet remain situated in devalued domestic labor. By foregrounding the sending-country perspective, this study contributes to discussions on transnational migration governance by demonstrating how sending states reproduce and negotiate inequality within bilateral labor arrangements.
The study is set against the backdrop of the Japanese blockade of China's coastal areas in 1937 and the Burma Road becoming the lifeline for transporting wartime materials. It focuses on the transnational nationalist mobilization mechanisms of the Malayan Chinese within the Nanyang Volunteer Mechanics Organization (1937- 1945). The research reveals that Malayan Chinese leaders leveraged social capital within colonial interstices to con-struct a transnational technical collaboration system that circumvented British colonial suppression. By examining the grassroots mobilization and self-organizing nature of technical networks, this study offers a new perspective on overseas Chinese transnational collaboration and identity formation, adding significant historical depth to these discussions.
Using the bioecological systems theory and the paternal engagement model as conceptual frameworks, this study examined fathers’ migration patterns and how socioeconomic factors influence their involvement with their children. A sample of 260 Bangladeshi migrant ( probashi or non-residential) fathers working in Malaysia participated in the study. This was a convenience sample, and two bilingual (Bangla-English) graduate students interviewed each participant. Easy access to employment and visas were the most common reasons cited for migrating to Malaysia for work. They have worked for about eight years, have changed jobs at least twice since arriving in Malaysia, and most have worked as unskilled laborers. Migrant fathers reported high levels of involvement with their children and families. Fathers’ income significantly predicted their level of involvement with their children.
International marriage migration has rapidly transformed South Korea's rural areas. Using Q methodology, this study examines how multicultural farm families perceive and adapt to rural life amid cultural, social, and economic challenges. Data from 29 participants reveals three adaptation types: (1) Satisfied Settlers, who build belonging through family and community relationships, (2) Cultural Challengers, who face language and economic barriers, and (3) Support Seekers, who rely on external support, particularly for their children's education. The findings highlight diverse rural multicultural experiences and support a subjectivity-centered approach, with policy implications for more context-sensitive, family-oriented integration across the Asia-Pacific region.
This study examines how understanding South Korea's political system is associated with social integration and life satisfaction among North Korean defectors. Unlike voluntary immigrants, the defectors transition from an authoritarian regime to a democratic society with no prior exposure to democratic institutions, making political adaptation a unique resettlement challenge. Analysis of survey data from 107 defectors reveals a significant positive relationship between comprehension of liberal democracy and satisfaction with freedom, competition, and overall well-being. Furthermore, while perceived system deficiencies negatively correlate with life satisfaction, this study suggests that structural factors such as bureaucratic hurdles and social stigma may drive this discontent. By establishing a link between political value adaptation and life satisfaction, this study underscores the importance of ideological integration for successful settlement in South Korea.
This paper examines the factors motivating scientists and engineers to return to India after working in information technology and biotechnology companies in the United States of America (USA). Drawing on a qualitative study, the findings reveal that decisions to return are influenced by family considerations, career opportunities, entrepreneurial aspirations, challenges associated with immigration to the USA, and an affinity for Indian culture. Conversely, migrants who choose to remain in the USA cite superior career prospects, favorable work environments, and a high quality of life. Despite their differing choices, both returnees and stayers actively maintain transnational professional relationships with scientists and engineers in the USA and India, respectively, fostering connections across borders.
This study investigates gender differences in remittance practices among migrants in Japan, focusing on motivations, behaviors, and financial inclusion outcomes. Using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), we identify eight thematic subgroups based on underlying patterns in factors like socioeconomic background, financial service familiarity, and migration stage. Findings both affirm and challenge conventional views, revealing that while women overall prioritize savings, men are more motivated by altruism and family support. By examining these interactions, we offer new insights into how gender roles evolve in different migrant contexts, enhancing our understanding of the complex drivers behind remittance practices and financial inclusion.
This study explores the colonial conception, migration, and labor experiences of "hill coolies" from India to Mauritius between 1834 and 1840. Drawing on archival materials, it investigates how colonial officials and plantation owners viewed hill communities, particularly the Dhangars, as submissive, diligent, and suitable for indentured labor due to their socio-economic disenfranchisement and perceived cultural simplicity. Additionally, it delves into the challenges faced by hill coolies, such as poor working conditions, cultural dislocation, and high mortality rates, especially during sea voyages. It highlights how these factors, alongside evolving economic strategies and the need for greater social control, led to a shift in preference toward plain laborers. Positioned within the broader frameworks of global capitalism, the transformation of slavery and colonial oppression, this work underscores the resilience and agency of displaced communities in the face of systemic exploitation. By revealing the entrenched structural inequalities perpetuated by the indentured labor system, it offers critical insights into the socio-economic and political dynamics that influenced migration, labor policies, and the lived experiences of hill coolies in the colonial era.
This article examines value creation among Pakistani waste laborers in an informal street market in Hong Kong. Framing waste as latent value, it explores how domestic waste (electronics, appliances, household items) is revalued through processes of collection, sorting, and resale. Often marginalized, these ethnic minority workers are central to transforming waste into tradable goods and sustaining informal transnational networks. Introducing the concept of the "embodied waste laborer," the article highlights their agency in reshaping the value of waste and challenging ethnic stigma, reframing it not as a sign of marginality but as a vital resource that affirms their roles and supports community resilience.
This article focuses on anti-immigrant attitudes in the three largest receivers of immigrants in Southeast Asia-Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand. We found that the two dimensions of attitudes we analyzed-attitudes toward immigrants and immigration-have differing predictive power in the three countries, suggesting that they are rooted in distinct local concerns. Overall, the study found that people's concerns regarding competition for jobs generate negative attitudes. These worries can be traced in each of the three countries, yet they do not always translate into social animosities, something that complicates findings from earlier studies on resentments in the region.
Drawing on government statistics and in-depth interviews with owners and directors of 21 migrant worker sending companies in Indonesia, we identify three types of migrant worker sending companies that engage in and facilitate Indonesia's overseas labor placement-the providers, the pioneers, and the protectors. We argue that in a changed labor-sending context, only those sending companies with strong and positively received identities and practices can sustain their businesses and succeed in recruiting workers, indicating a shift in relationships between labor intermediaries and migrant workers, as well as the role of intermediaries in shaping Indonesia's labor-sending patterns.
