ABSTRACT
One of the contentions of this volume is that the state in Asia remains the primary, although not only, actor capable of securitising undocumented migration. Understanding how migration patterns enter into the realm of security politics and how this process proceeds is embedded within competing political and economic interest within bureaucracies, militaries and so on, bringing to the fore the two levels of analysis that I contend have the most impact on the degree and nature of securitisation (for our purposes of undocumented migration). These are, on the one hand, regional security dynamics, state-to-state relations within the region, and the degree to which this is impacted upon by global levels powers, such as Japan and China; and on the other, the sub-state/or societal level, where factors such as centre-periphery relations, bureaucratic capacity and resistance, and the particular socio-cultural context have a bearing on the success (or failure) of moves to securitise.
