E.g., 04/24/2024
E.g., 04/24/2024
Asia and the Pacific

Asia and the Pacific

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, and increasing intraregional migration as demographic transitions occur at different levels within Asia. The research here focuses on how the labor-sending countries of the region, notably the Philippines and other Colombo Process countries, manage these migration flows and the recruitment process. It also examines other conditions affecting the region, including humanitarian protection challenges, climate migration, diaspora relations, and remittances.

Three migrant men wearing masks in Thailand
Reports

Mobility Shutdown: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in Asia and the Pacific

Some of the strictest COVID-19 pandemic-era limits on human mobility occurred in the Asia Pacific region. Border closures started in East and Southeast Asia in early 2020 and quickly spread through the entire region, in some cases remaining in place for more than two years. This report examines the approaches countries took and reflects on the immense costs and benefits of using border measures to tackle public-health risks.

A woman in Nigeria smiles while using her mobile phone
Reports

Leaving No One Behind: Inclusive Fintech for Remittances

Remittances are a vital lifeline for migrants’ families around the world and an important source of revenue for many low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of crisis. As more people turn to digital financial technologies for these money transfers, this shift holds the potential to shake up the rigid remittance industry and boost development benefits. But it also brings new challenges, as this report explores.

Photo of returning Filipino migrant workers.
Articles

The Philippines’ Landmark Labor Export and Development Policy Enters the Next Generation

Fifty years after the birth of the Philippines' strategy to use emigration as a tool for development, the government is doubling down on labor migration. While deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) slumped during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the government and civil society pivoting to assist with return migration and reintegration for hundreds of thousands of Filipinos, emigration has since rebounded, as this article details.

Recent Activity

AsiaSociety AsianPacificAmericanHeritage Flickr
Articles
January 6, 2016
Immigrants from Asia in the United States
By Jie Zong and Jeanne Batalova
Event PH 2015.12.16 Emigration and Human Capital Development in the Philippines
Multimedia
December 16, 2015
Shortage Amid Surplus: Emigration and Human Capital Development in the Philippines
Cover Top10 4Smuggling
Articles
December 15, 2015
Big Business of Smuggling Enables Mass Movement of People for Enormous Profits
By Elizabeth Collett
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Policy Briefs
December 2015
Shortage Amid Surplus: Emigration and Human Capital Development in the Philippines
By  Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
Cover Top10 5Citizenship
Articles
December 14, 2015
Governments Increasingly Restrict Citizenship
By Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan
Cover Top10 7NatDisasters
Articles
December 10, 2015
Climate Change and Natural Disasters Displace Millions, Affect Migration Flows
By Liz Heimann
Cover Top10 9Borders
Articles
December 8, 2015
Border Skirmishes Resonate in National Domestic Politics
By Marissa Esthimer
Cover Top10 10InvestorVisas
Articles
December 7, 2015
Shine Wears Off Investor Visa Programs as Questions about Economic Benefits and Fraud Lead to Reforms
By Kate Hooper and Demetrios G. Papademetriou

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Cover CP Vietnam2015
Profile
April 29, 2015
From Humanitarian to Economic: The Changing Face of Vietnamese Migration

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.

KoreanCenterinChina wwian flickr
Feature
March 4, 2015
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.

FE ChineseZambia ChingKwanLee cover
Feature
February 20, 2015
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.

Cover Top10 3Borders UNHCR
Top Ten
December 18, 2014
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.

Cover Top10 4Ebola
Top Ten
December 16, 2014
Building Borders around Ebola

Fears regarding the spread of the deadly Ebola virus following an outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone prompted governments around the world to regulate travel from and within West Africa. Travel bans, airport health screenings, closed borders, and traveler quarantines were among the policies implemented. International organizations argue such restrictions drive possibly symptomatic travelers to illegally bypass borders and encourage dishonesty in the exit screening process.

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Recent Activity

Articles
April 19, 2024

Bangladesh’s Economic Vitality Owes in Part to Migration and Remittances

For a young country, Bangladesh has a complex migration history, with periods of forced migration during the partition of India and Pakistan as well as the 1971 war of independence. In recent years, labor emigration has proved a major economic boon to the country. This country profile reviews trends and the impact of emigration, with a particular focus on the effects of remittance sending and receipt.

Articles
April 3, 2024

Brain Drain and Brain Gain in Hong Kong’s Population Shuffle

Hong Kong finds itself in the middle of opposing trends. Amid political unrest, Beijing's increasing security pressure, and pandemic disruptions, many Hong Kongers have left and been replaced by a new group of immigrants, largely from mainland China. The dynamic has raised questions whether Hong Kong will remain a global cosmopolitan hub or instead turn inward to Asia, as this article discusses.

Policy Briefs
March 2024

Lessons from COVID-19: Managing Borders in the Next Global Public-Health Crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic both shocked the global mobility system and reaffirmed the centrality and resiliency of human mobility. Four years on, public and political attention to COVID-19’s unprecedented consequences for cross-border movement has waned. Yet if countries are to manage mobility more effectively in future public-health crises, this is an important moment for reflection and learning, as this issue brief explores.

Reports
March 2024

Mobility Shutdown: The Impacts of COVID-19 on Migration in Asia and the Pacific

Some of the strictest COVID-19 pandemic-era limits on human mobility occurred in the Asia Pacific region. Border closures started in East and Southeast Asia in early 2020 and quickly spread through the entire region, in some cases remaining in place for more than two years. This report examines the approaches countries took and reflects on the immense costs and benefits of using border measures to tackle public-health risks.

Articles
March 6, 2024

Iran Faces Dwindling Water and Escalating Climate Pressures, Aggravating Displacement Threats

Floods, heatwaves, and other extreme weather events have displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Iran, with repercussions for residents including the 3.4 million refugees and other forced migrants, who are restricted to climate-affected areas. Environmental challenges may also be pushing some people to move internationally. This article offers a rare look at the climate and migration dynamics in Iran.

Expert Q&A, Audio
February 27, 2024

Moving Mountains: Climate Migration in High Altitudes

This episode of Changing Climate, Changing Migration speaks with Amina Maharjan from the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development about the unique climate migration issues that are witnessed in mountain regions.

Reports
February 2024

Leaving No One Behind: Inclusive Fintech for Remittances

Remittances are a vital lifeline for migrants’ families around the world and an important source of revenue for many low- and middle-income countries, especially in times of crisis. As more people turn to digital financial technologies for these money transfers, this shift holds the potential to shake up the rigid remittance industry and boost development benefits. But it also brings new challenges, as this report explores.

Articles
February 22, 2024

Reliant on Labor Migration, the Global South Forges a New Social Contract with Its Citizens

Countries such as Nepal and the Philippines have grown reliant on sending workers abroad to earn money, skills, and connections that help boost their economies. In these cases, emigration has become a way for governments in the Global South to offer their citizens access to social services and protections that they could not otherwise provide. This article details the emergence of this new mode of state-society relations.

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