Asia

The Opening of Burmese Borders: Impacts on Migration
Burma, a resources-rich yet impoverished nation also known as Myanmar, rejoined the international community in 2011 after a military junta loosened its grip. Before the Southeast Asian nation opened its borders, Burmese migrated primarily for low-paid, clandestine work in Thailand but also as a result of violence and natural disasters. This article explores how the country’s recent transition has impacted Burmese migration flows.

Top 10 of 2012
Issue #9: International Student Mobility Rises, and Countries Seek to Capitalize
More students crossed borders in 2012 than ever before. A number of countries have entered the student mobility game in a significant way, including Brazil and Saudi Arabia, whose governments recently extended programs investing in scholarships for study abroad. And Asia, a long-standing international student source, is now emerging as a destination for those seeking higher education.

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.

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.

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.