Introduction

This introductory chapter contextualises the importance of investigating the developmental outcomes of temporary labour migration schemes at a time when shifts in the global economy are overseeing increased internal and international migration of this kind. It argues that low-wage temporary labour migration is a key dynamic of economic growth in East and Southeast Asia, and an increasingly rife practice among the post-industrial economies of the Global North, but has been accompanied by misleading assumptions about the motivations of ‘economic migrants’ and potential for workers’ remittances to catalyse development. It argues that the ‘ends justify the means’ logic of World Bank’s triple-win thesis offers little absolution for rampant abuses of migrant rights, and introduces Sri Lanka’s track record of uneven development amid mass temporary labour migration as reason to question the presumed causality of migration-development. The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the theory and methodology used throughout the book and an introduction to the chapters that follow.