Migration and Asia: reflections on continuities and change

The 25 years since the Asia-Pacific Population Journal first appeared have seen momentous change both globally and within Asia. In 1986, Japan was one of the most dynamic economies in the world with the four "Tiger" economies of Hong Kong, then still a colony; the Republic of Korea; Taiwan Province of China; and Singapore not far behind. The reforms in China, implemented from 1979, were well under way but the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics had still a few more years of existence before a series of independent nation States were to appear in the central part of Asia. The term "globalization" had yet to make its way into mainstream development discourse but it is Asia's uneven but dramatic development, political, social and economic, over those 25 years that has moulded and guided population migrations both within and from the region. Equally, it is Asia's changing position in the world as it has come to challenge the West that has contributed to and been a result of these changing population flows.