Volume 12, 2003

Issue N. 4

Sin Yih Teo

"Dreaming Inside a Walled City: Imagination, Gender and the Roots of Immigration," Vol. 12 (4), p. 411-438, 2003

Focusing on the phase before immigration occurs, this paper examines the social and cultural embeddedness, as well as gendered nature, of migration decisions. Based upon focus groups and interviews with recent immigrants from the People’s Republic of China in Vancouver, Canada, I explore migrants’ deeply personal and multi-layered reasons for departure, challenging economistic views that tend to overvalorize the desire for improving human capital. I also consider the phenomenon of the “adventuring wife” and her “agreeing husband” through a gender lens. The paper demonstrates the significance of context, and reveals the active role of the imagination in initiating migration.

Graeme Hugo
"Information, Exploitation and Empowerment: The Case of Indonesian Overseas Workers," Vol. 12 (4), p. 439-468, 2003

The central significance of information in migration decision-making has long been recognized but its role in influencing international labor migration, one of the fastest growing types of international population movement, has been little examined. The paper takes the Indonesian case to demonstrate that in such migration the information available to potential migrants is limited and often distorted, which partly explains why many migrants encounter problems. It is argued that the timely provision of comprehensive, relevant and accurate information can better enable migrants to make decisions about migration which are likely to be in their own interests and it also can empower migrants to deal more effectively with exploitation.

Xiang Biao
"SARS and Migrant Workers in China: An Institutional Analysis," Vol. 12 (4), p. 267-500, 2003

The government and the public considered rural-urban migrant workers as the most problematic group during the SARS outbreak in China in early 2003. They feared that migrant workers were susceptible to the disease, tended to flee major cities where the early outbreaks occurred, and then spread the virus to the countryside where containing the disease would be difficult. This paper suggests that the links between the SARS outbreak and the migrants are far more complex and they must be understood in an institutional context. First, the paper argues that the migrants pose special challenges to the government in managing the outbreak not only because of their mobility, their low incomes or lack of health awareness, but also because they are outside the state's control and support system. Second, this paper suggests that the migrants fled the SARS-hit cities due to what I hypothesize as “chain reaction.” The migrants’ institutionally marginalized position rendered them vulnerable to the social and economic disruptions resulting from mass mobilization, which may have more social implications than their susceptibility to the virus. These two arguments reveal the problems stemming from the absence of appropriate institutional mechanisms, such as a universal medical care system, with respect to migrants. In view of increasing uncertainties in present times, it is imperative for the government to provide basic social security to migrant workers and to maintain economic stability.


RESEARCH NOTE
 

Marisha Maas
"Harnessing Transnational Linkages for Development: The Case of Dutch-Filipino Connections," Vol. 12 (4), p. 501-514, 2003

Using the concept of transnationalism as a point of departure, I examine the expanding linkages between Filipinos in the Netherlands and their communities of origin in the Philippines. The emerging linkages and relations between migrants abroad and their home communities also include other actors and institutions, such as government agencies and NGOs. The empirical evidence based on the Dutch-Filipino connections suggests that these transnational linkages have the potential to promote sustainable development in the migrants' home communities.

BOOK REVIEW
 

Michael Szonyi
"Leaving China: Media, Migration and Transtional Imagination"

By Wanning Sun, Vol. 12 (4), p. 515-516, 2003