Asia has a disproportionate share of the world's young, working-age population—which represents the most mobile cohort—with resulting major immigration flows to other regions of the world, and increasing intraregional migration as aging and demographic transitions occur at different levels within Asia. The research here focuses in particular on how the labor-sending countries of the region, notably the Philippines and other Colombo Process countries, manage these migration flows, engage in bilateral and multilateral cooperation with migrant-receiving nations, and engage their diasporas. The recruitment process and regulation of recruitment agencies also represent a strand of the work offered here.
Building Climate Resilience through Migration in Thailand
Migration can help build resilience against the encroaching effects of climate change. Instead of being passive victims of environmental degradation, individuals sometimes move to gain money, knowledge, and skills that can fortify their household of origin. Migrant workers from Thailand demonstrate how and under what conditions this process works.
COVID-19 Pandemic Profoundly Affects Bangladeshi Workers Abroad with Consequences for Origin Communities
Bangladesh is one of the world's largest migrant-origin countries, and money sent home by its workers abroad is crucial to an economy that has become one of the more vibrant ones in South Asia. Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic has injected turmoil into the economy as Bangladeshi migrants have lost their jobs, families are seeing reduced remittances, and would-be migrant workers have had to shelve their plans to work abroad.
Open Wallet, Closed Doors: Exploring Japan's Low Acceptance of Asylum Seekers
By Naohiko Omata
Promoting the Health of Left-Behind Children of Asian Labour Migrants: Evidence for Policy and Action
By Kolitha Wickramage, Chesmal Siriwardhana and Sharika Peiris
Redefining Nepal: Internal Migration in a Post-Conflict, Post-Disaster Society
By Paul Clewett
From Humanitarian to Economic: The Changing Face of Vietnamese Migration
By Karl Miller
Syrian Refugees in Turkey: The Long Road Ahead
By Ahmet İçduygu
The Asia-Pacific and Women's Labour Migration
Remittances and Development: Trends, Impacts, and Policy Options, A Review of the Literature
By Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
The New 'Boat People': Ensuring Safety and Determining Status
By Joanne van Selm and Betsy Cooper
Beyond Remittances: The Role of Diaspora in Poverty Reduction in their Countries of Origin
By Kathleen Newland and Erin Patrick
Discussion on Migration and Development: Using Remittances and Circular Migration as Drivers for Development
By Kevin O'Neil
Even as Nepal will lean more heavily on its international diaspora to help recover from devastating earthquakes that killed thousands and decimated parts of the country, the disasters have had effects on internal migration. Class and gender dynamics have long driven significant internal flows. This feature article explores migration trends in Nepal, including movement between ecological zones, growing urbanization, and the feminization of an increasingly mobile workforce.
The end of the Vietnam war, marked by the fall of Saigon in 1975, precipitated the mass Indochinese refugee crisis, which saw more than 2 million people flee the region, often on unseaworthy boats. Following the war, Vietnamese migration was divided between humanitarian flows to the West, and labor migrants to allied communist countries. More recently, Vietnam's rapid economic growth has prompted increased labor migration to Asia and a rise in migrant brides.
Destination China: The Country Adjusts to its New Migration Reality
Faced with rising numbers of foreign entries (long- and short-term), China in 2012 adopted new legislation to manage its migration flows—the first reform to the country's immigration law since 1985. With an underlying tension in the legal framework between restricting immigrants deemed unwanted and welcoming those viewed as desirable, this feature examines the exit-entry law's key points.
Following the Money: Chinese Labor Migration to Zambia
Migration has begun to follow the flow of capital after years of Chinese investment in major infrastructure projects in Zambia. This feature article, based on original research including the coding of 25,000 Zambian entry permits, examines the emerging migration pattern from China to Zambia, as Chinese migration to the country has increased 60 percent since 2009.
Border Controls under Challenge: A New Chapter Opens
In 2014 governments in Europe, North America, and Australia reacted to significant mixed flows of humanitarian, economic, and family-stream migrants with a range of new policies. These came as some migrants presented themselves to authorities for processing rather than trying to evade U.S. or European border controls, with the knowledge that backlogs and little political will for the removal of vulnerable populations might allow them to stay for extended periods.
Japan is one of the world's most generous contributors to humanitarian appeals, yet accepts a very small number of asylum seekers—indeed only 11 were granted refugee status in 2014. Even as Japan has witnessed a record number of asylum applications, the approval rate has declined. This feature explores Japan's low acceptance of asylum seekers, including institutional barriers and negative public perceptions.
International labor migration has become vital to economic development in Asian countries, but for children and families left behind, it can also at times create a negative influence on health, break down family and social cohesion, and increase the burden on health systems, as this MPI-IOM issue brief explores.
More than 1.7 million Syrian refugees lived in Turkey as of mid-March 2015, making this the world's largest community of Syrians displaced by the conflict in their country. This report provides an overview of Turkey's changing migration landscape and the position of Syrian refugees in Turkey today, along with policy recommendations given the likelihood of long-term or permanent displacement for Syrians.
Marking the release of the 12th MPI-IOM Issue in Brief, this event in Bangkok examined the emerging trends in women's labor migration in the Asia-Pacific region, and the related opportunities and challenges. The audio does not include opening remarks and begins with the author's presentation.
Kathleen Newland
Muzaffar Chishti
Changing Climate, Changing Migration: Purposeful and Coordinated: Climate Change and Managed Retreat in India