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

Cover Top10 3Borders UNHCR
Articles
December 18, 2014
Border Controls under Challenge: A New Chapter Opens
By Demetrios G. Papademetriou and Kate Hooper
Cover Top10 4Ebola
Articles
December 16, 2014
Building Borders around Ebola
By Rebecca Kilberg
coverthumb IOM Brief 11
Policy Briefs
December 2014
A ‘Freer’ Flow of Skilled Labour within ASEAN: Aspirations, Opportunities, and Challenges in 2015 and Beyond
By  Guntur Sugiyarto and Dovelyn Rannveig Mendoza
Cover Top10 7Workers2014
Articles
December 11, 2014
Exploitation of Migrant Workers in Asia
By Michael Siebel
Cover Top10 9Points
Articles
December 10, 2014
The Points System Is Dead, Long Live the Points System
By Madeleine Sumption
Cover Top10 10China
Articles
December 10, 2014
Migration with Chinese Characteristics: Hukou Reform and Elite Emigration
By Victoria Rietig
peace corps_vanuatu harbor
Articles
November 7, 2014
Pacific Island Nations, Criminal Deportees, and Reintegration Challenges
By Natalia Pereira
EVENTPH 2014.10.28 The Global Boom in Investor Immigration (youtube E.Collett)v.3
Multimedia
October 28, 2014
The Global Boom in Investor Immigration: What Are the Lessons For Policymakers?

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Feature
July 11, 2012
Australia's Boat People: Asylum Challenges and Two Decades of Policy Experimentation

For two decades, Australia has experimented with different asylum policies in response to an increase in refugees and asylum seekers entering the country. A look at the country's challenges in managing a hotly contested political and public debate.

Profile
April 3, 2012
Rapid Growth in Singapore's Immigrant Population Brings Policy Challenges

Over the past decade, Singapore's multicultural yet nationalist society has experienced substantial inflows of Asian and Western professionals, low-skilled migrants from across Southeast Asia, and new immigrants from nontraditional sending countries. This, coupled with increasingly permanent emigration of educated and skilled Singaporeans, has presented the city-state with complex challenges related to migration policymaking.

Feature
January 24, 2012
Here, There, and Back Again: A New Zealand Case Study of Chinese Circulatory Transmigration

Rarely is migration among the Chinese from Hong Kong, the People's Republic of China, and Taiwan to the countries of the Pacific Rim as cut and dry as the labels "immigrant," "emigrant," and "returnee" suggest. In fact, Chinese migrants from each of these areas of origin share a tendency for traversing between their homeland; country of work, study, or residence; and even a third country as the needs of the family dictate. This article examines these contemporary migration patterns using Chinese migrants in New Zealand as a case study.

Profile
January 24, 2012
Tradition and Progress: Taiwan's Evolving Migration Reality

In a highly selective way, flows of internal migrants within Taiwan have responded quickly to political, economic, and social changes throughout the nation’s history, and have spurred development of the country’s industrial, services, and technological industries. In the past 20 years, however, international migration has reemerged in relevance and now includes the immigration of foreign workers and wives and the emigration of some of Taiwan’s best and brightest.

Feature
January 4, 2012
China's Young Rural-to-Urban Migrants: In Search of Fortune, Happiness, and Independence

Most of China's roughly 145 million rural-to-urban migrants were born after 1980, making this population the "new generation" of internal migrant workers. Having been directly influenced by China's rapid economic growth and recent sociodemographic policy changes, this cohort of rural-urban migrants offers much to learn with respect to their motivations. This article discusses survey data indicating that new-generation migrants have somewhat different motivations and expectations than their more traditional counterparts, such as the desire for excitement, fun, and career development independent of the needs of the family back home.

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Recent Activity

Video, Audio
December 1, 2015

Investor Visa Programs: Examining their Utility, Challenges, and Successes

A discussion on the U.S. EB-5 program, the motivations underpinning recent changes to other investor visa programs in North America, Europe, and elsewhere, and the implications for the future direction of these programs. 

Reports
November 2015

The Southeast Asia-Australia Regional Migration System: Some Insights into the “New Emigration”

This report dispels the perception that flows between Australia and the ASEAN region are headed in one direction: to Australia. Using unpublished administrative data, the authors sketch a complex picture of skilled Australian emigration to ASEAN, significant temporary movements of skilled workers in both directions, and close connections between the two regions even after migrants permanently return to their country of origin.

Reports
October 2015

The Educational Experiences of Refugee Children in Countries of First Asylum

The pre-resettlement experiences of refugee children can have significant ramifications on their relationships with teachers and peers and on their academic advancement once resettled. This report explores the educational histories of young refugee children in first-asylum countries and identifies elements that are relevant to postresettlement education in the United States.

Articles
October 7, 2015

Open Wallet, Closed Doors: Exploring Japan’s Low Acceptance of Asylum Seekers

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.

Audio
September 24, 2015

A Discussion on the Effects of Asian Labor Migration on the Health of Left-Behind Children

This discussion, at the Bangkok launch of an MPI-International Organization for Migration issue brief, explores the social and health impacts of international labor migration on the children who remain at home when one or both their parents emigrate.

Policy Briefs
September 2015

Promoting the Health of Left-Behind Children of Asian Labour Migrants: Evidence for Policy and Action

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.

Policy Briefs
July 2015

Irregular Maritime Migration in the Bay of Bengal: The Challenges of Protection, Management, and Cooperation

Irregular maritime migration across the Bay of Bengal to Southeast Asia entered a period of crisis in spring 2015 as a wave of migrants and refugees crossed, most departing from ports in Myanmar and Bangladesh, with many facing critical danger along the way. This MPI-IOM Issue in Brief puts the crisis into context and offers a consideration of what recent history has to teach about responses to maritime migration crises.

Articles
June 18, 2015

Redefining Nepal: Internal Migration in a Post-Conflict, Post-Disaster Society

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.

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