ABSTRACT
Long known for emigration, the industrialized states of East Asia have begun to play a significant new role in the world as destinations for immigration. The East Asian approaches to immigration, however, have some notable features, with transnational regional effects. Focusing primarily on Japan and South Korea but making comparisons with other industrialized countries as well, this chapter identifies three key dynamics in this process. First, we show the role of migrant labor in increasing transnationalization. The most advanced countries in East Asia are increasingly joining Western countries in their reliance on foreign labor in both low-and high-skilled labor markets. The reliance at the low end is driven by changes in native workforces, which are becoming both smaller and more educated. Notably, however, the low-skilled migration also drives a regional transnationalization, as it remains overwhelmingly intra-Asian and short term. That is, it is very difficult for low-skilled labor migrants to gain permanent residence or citizenship, and visas are invariably of only a few years duration. Lacking family reunification opportunities, these migrants are not likely to settle illegally. Second, we explore the important role of ethnic return migration in the region. Because it is enabled if not also encouraged by state policy, this migration has important implications for transnationalization in each state. Ethnic return migrants do not easily gain citizenship and most likely see advantages to the lower cost of living in their sending states; this is particularly so in the event of a recession in their host states. Therefore, many if not most return home. Third, East Asian states have created marital migration as the primary path for low-skilled migrants who are not ethnic return migrants to settle. This has introduced cultural diversity into the intimate setting of family life, as tens of thousands of men, particularly in rural areas, are importing brides from less wealthy Asian countries, particularly Vietnam, the Philippines, and China. However, because these brides cannot bring family members and because they come from poorer countries and have incentives to send remittances home, marital migration also brings a transnational regional dynamic to several East Asian states. This phenomenon, we suggest, has helped to establish a “culture of migration” within sending communities, whereby local marriage and labor markets in both sending and receiving states are shaped by the prospect of marriage migration. We conclude by highlighting the complex interplay of the nation and the transnational effects created by exclusionary immigration policies in the East Asian region. Throughout, we show how the transnational dynamics are mostly unintended consequences of Asian immigration policies directed toward preserving social order, minimizing costs, and preserving or strengthening the nation. Despite the increasingly complex controls imposed by states, we may thus observe a growing set of transnational dynamics that are reshaping the nation in East Asia.
