Trends in international migration in the Asian and Pacific region

While recognising the antiquity of population migration in the Asian and Pacific region, this article focuses upon the patterns of migration over the last half-century. The causes of the migration are divided into four clusters of factors: immigration policies of potential destination countries; developments in the Middle East; the political involvement of external powers; and the economic development of parts of East, Southeast and South Asia itself. The principal consequences of the recent migrations are considered in terms of their economic, social and political impacts. The current issues in Asian migration revolve primarily around questions of sovereignty in a globalising world and the emergence of transnational communities and illegal migration are identified as being of particular concern to the state in Asia. It is suggested that the economic reversals in parts of East and Southeast Asia had relatively little impact on the overall patterns of population movement in the region and that international migration will persist as one of the principal forces for the transformation of Asian and Pacific societies in the twenty-first century.