ABSTRACT
This contribution focuses on temporary migration from Asia to Germany and addresses the involved transformative characteristics which are shaped by social practices of diverse actors, including migrants, political institutions and companies. The resulting transformations are encompassed analytically as politico-legal (i.e. bureaucracy, migrants’ political engagement), socio-economic (i.e. labour market integration, mobile people’s transnational businesses) and socio-cultural (i.e. integration and cross-border social links) categories. Based on this categorisation, the chapter analyses the effects of these transformative dynamics on territories and people. The empirical evidence shows that temporary migration can propel development processes in Germany and countries of origin. Under certain conditions also, mobile people can benefit from temporary migration experiences they make in Germany. Nonetheless, the findings also indicate that temporary migration is likely to foster inequalities, for instance by enforcing regional socio-economic disparities in places of origin or by facilitating the exploitation of the foreign labour force.
