Migration Studies Commons^™

Diaspora By Another Name: The Making Of Refugees In Cold War China, Jiaqi M. Liu, Clare Xiaoqian Wan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

By examining China’s refugee policies from 1949 to 1982, this article demonstrates how the Chinese state redefined “return” and “refugee” to serve shifting political objectives. While China is often perceived as a source, rather than a host, of asylum seekers, it hosted over 320,000 displaced migrants—primarily ethnic Chinese from Southeast Asia—during the Cold War. Through a systematic discourse analysis of 382 People’s Daily articles, we identify four state narratives—diaspora, diplomatic tool, ideological sanctuary, and legal duty—that structured how China labeled displaced migrants, interpreted their sentiments, and determined their settlement. These models evolved dynamically: from the 1950s to the late 1970s, …

Shock Mobilities During Moments Of Acute Uncertainty, Biao Xiang, William L. Allen, Shahram Khosravi, Helene Neveu Kringelbach, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Karen Anne S. Liao, Cuellar Jorge E., Lamea Momen, Priya Deshingkar, Mukta And Naik

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The COVID-19 pandemic and interventions addressing it raise important questions about human mobility that have geopolitical implications. This forum uses mobility and immobility during the pandemic as lenses onto the ways that routinised state power reacts to acute uncertainties, as well as how these reactions impact politics and societies. Specifically, we propose the concept of "shock mobility" as migratory routines radically reconfigured: emergency flights from epicentres, mass repatriations, lockdowns, quarantines. Patterns of shock mobility and immobility are not new categories of movement, but rather are significant alterations to the timing, duration, intensity, and relations among existing movements. Many of these …

Shifting Employabilities: Skilling Migrants In The Nation Of Emigration, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper examines how Philippine state agencies sustain its labour-exporting strategies by encouraging aspiring migrants to invest in their own training and education, taking on the responsibility of turning themselves into desirable workers for employers overseas. Based on a document analysis of newspaper articles and Philippine government reports, this paper uses the case of Philippine nursing education to show how the Philippine state alters these discourses of skill when overseas opportunities decline, channelling aspiring migrants sideways to other sectors of the labour market. Discourses of employability justified these career detours to aspiring migrants by assuring them that such experiences will …

Selling A Resume And Buying A Job: Stratification Of Gender And Occupation By States And Brokers In International Migration From Indonesia, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines how state and commercial actors construct gender, occupation, and nationality hierarchies in guest worker programs by comparing the migratory procedures for female domestic workers and male industrial operators from Indonesia. Based on 19 months of multi-sited ethnography and 86 interviews in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Singapore, I introduce the notion of multilateralism to theorize the stratification of global migration processes. In multilateral labor markets, governments, brokers, employers, and migrants in multiple countries contend for labor and employment. The homecare market is governed under the rubric of “selling a resume,” whereby Indonesian regulators and labor suppliers pass on recruitment …

Crisis And Connection, Qiuyi Tan, Christy Davis, Dalvin Sidhu, Tania Nagpaul

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

COVID-19 has bridged a longstanding disconnect between Singapore’s resident and migrant populations, showing that the health and well-being of everyone are linked in a pandemic. This paper reviews the available research on low-wage migrant workers in Singapore and unpacks the challenges using design thinking and its human-centred ethos. Transformative social change often starts with knowledge and understanding. We map out the research so you can use it.

Producing The Self-Regulating Subject: Liberal Protection In Indonesia’S Migration Infrastructure, Andy Scott Chang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Labour protection has become a dominant agenda in global migration governance, particularly for sending countries whose diasporic citizens are denied political rights in host states. Despite having limited authority to arbitrate extraterritorial disputes, sending countries like Indonesia have deployed novel techniques of statecraft to improve migrant protection. Through the prism of the professional competence exam and pre-departure orientation seminar, this article investigates the Indonesian state's regulatory practices that focus on migrant conduct. Although outbound domestic workers are subject to a prolonged process of skill formation, other Indonesian contract workers pursue emigration upon acquiring basic legal knowledge without undergoing accreditation. While …

Migration: 2017 The New York Times Asia-Pacific Writing Competition, New York Times

Student Publications

This is a yearly writing competition organised by International New York Times (INYT). This year's topic is "Migration" and SMU's law student Averill Chow Mingni was the winner in the University category. See her essay:

• New homes, better lives by Averill Chow Mingni on page 16-17

Globalization, Modernity, And Migration: The Changing Visage Of Social Imagination, Darlene Machell Espena

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, I assert that the recent phenomenon of migration is one apparent and fundamental process that shapes human communities, transforming cultural variation, and distorts the constructs of distance and space. The boundaries of nation-states and identities are constantly being challenged, restructured and interrogated and the trends of modernity and globalization, new ways of projecting feelings and diffusing cultures among displaced communities are produced. The article looks for the new stories that are produced with this vibrant intersection of globalization, modernity and migration. In particular, I focus on the distinct Sikh migrant community in the Philippines: how they have …