A migration channels approach to the study of high level manpower movements: a theoretical perspective

Desiring homeland: The return of Indonesian Chinese women to Maoist China

The past decades have witnessed a burgeoning literature on guiqiao (Returned Overseas Chinese) in the People’s Republic of China. These works have advanced and broadened research in this field; however, there is a persistent male bias that tends to ignore the gendered nature of migration processes or simplistically frame the return migration of women through a monolithic masculine/patriotic lens. To fill this gap, this paper looks at gendered motivations behind the ‘return’ of Chinese women from Indonesia in the 1950s. Seeing gender as ‘a central organizing principle in migration flows and in the organization of migrants lives’ ( Lutz 2010 : 1651) and drawing upon interviews and archival studies, it suggests that the ‘return’ of Chinese women to Maoist China was closely associated with postcolonial feminist imagination, or more specifically, a longing for ‘emancipated womanhood,’ in a transnational context mediated by citizenship and ethnicity. In addition, the experiences of female guiqiao as voluntary migrants and successful careerists challenge the (mis)conception of Chinese women migrants as trailing dependents, adding a counter narrative to the overarching androcentric discourse about Chinese migration from a historical perspective.

The International Mobility of Highly Skilled Workers in Transnational Corporations: The Macro and Micro Factors of the Organizational Migration of Cadres

The worldwide movement of highly skilled workers (cadres) in transnational corporations has long been known to literature in the field, yet has not been thoroughly researched. The mechanisms governing their international circulation are, in themselves, somewhat specific. The fact that they use an organizational “channel” for migration means that the constraints differ from those that act on “independent” economic migrants with either low or high levels of skill (the so-called brain drain). This article focuses on some of the manifestations of this mobility. Its dependence on a set of variables can be considerable: the firm's development phase, investment target choice, leading activity (manufacturing or services), form of technology, type of firm (using greenfield or brownfield investment), whether a firm acquired is healthy or undergoing an economic crisis, and nationality or corporate culture. The occupational insertion of cadres leads to further constraints: while the strictly “technical” assignments generally stem from skill shortages, the general “management” appointments mainly result from questions arising from control and trust. As a whole, the flows of highly skilled workers seem to be related to multiple variables – either social, organizational or individual – which make it difficult to predict future trends.

Social Networks and the Asylum Cycle: The Case of Iranians in the Netherlands

This paper examines the traditional distinction between the migration of refugees and labor migrants in the context of Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands. The empirical strategy adopted is to apply a framework designed specifically to explain labor migration to the case of asylum migration, and the social networks approach is identified as the most appropriate. This paper examines the role of social networks through the asylum cycle, focusing on the decision to migrate, the choice of destination, and adaptation in the host society. The key conclusion is that the validity of the distinction between refugee and labor migration varies through the asylum cycle even for the same individual.

International Labor Migration through Multinational Enterprises

This research studies international migration of company transferees. The main purposes are to address how their individual characteristics have influences on their overseas assignment and what kinds of migration patterns are created by the multinational business enterprises. U.S. firms in Taiwan are the primary study focus. By using both quantitative and qualitative data, the results show that although an overseas appointment is mainly based on individual competence, nationality, ethnicity and gender also play crucial roles. And multinationals are important channels for sustainable, return and circular migration.

International trade in services: a growing trend among highly skilled migrants with special reference to Asia

"An essential component of trade in services is cross-border movements of service providers.... On the one hand, there are international movements of skilled transients who emigrate for individual reasons in a long term perspective. On the other hand, there are skilled temporary migrants who perform services abroad without the intention or right to settle or seek employment in the host country. This study aims to clarify these differences using the example provided by the Asian Pacific region. Moreover, this study shows that the dynamics of skilled international migration is largely determined by the circulatory movement of skills of international service providers and has emerged as an essential component of economic development strategy of the countries in the region."

Population geography

The author reviews recent changes in population research from a geographical perspective. "The deaths in 1990 of two of France's most distinguished demographers, Alfred Sauvy (1899-1990) and Jean Bourgeois-Pichat (1912-90)...seem an appropriate starting point from which to review progress in population research in the early 1990s....Relative to the lifespans and works of Bourgeois-Pichat and Sauvy, it is possible to discern progress in population studies as a whole and population geography in particular. Advances in technical aspects of measuring mortality, fertility and migration have been most marked, as have attempts to inter-relate these demographic processes. Progress towards explanation of population-related phenomena has been slower. Advances have not been towards building more sophisticated general theories, but towards new and more insightful forms of explanation." The author then summarizes other research literature on fertility, migration, and population subgroups. The geographical scope is worldwide.