Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T01:05:25.218Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - The Migration of Professionals in an Integrating East Asia

from Part II - STATES, MARKETS AND THE MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2015

Manolo Abella
Affiliation:
ILO-EU Asian Regional Programme on Governance of Labour Migration, Bangkok
Geoffrey Ducanes
Affiliation:
ILO-EU Asian Regional Programme on Governance of Labour Migration, Bangkok
Get access

Summary

Asian professionals have been going to the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and other western European countries over much of the contemporary history of migration. This is partly a legacy of a long history of colonial relationship, especially in the case of the Philippines and the United States, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and Indonesia and The Netherlands, and also due to strong trade and investment links between them which occasion movements of traders, managers, and technicians, including intracompany transfers. The desire of many young Asians to acquire advanced degrees from western educational institutions has reinforced these trends, while shortages of skills and talents in western industrial countries have prompted the adoption of welcoming immigration policies. Compared with other destinations these countries also offer easier access to certain niches of their labour market because of language and early steps taken to recognize professional degrees and qualifications acquired in foreign countries.

The rise of East Asian economies has deflected some of these flows towards destinations within the region and there are signs that the flows are accelerating, albeit from a low base. Expatriate Japanese managers have for some time been ubiquitous in the region's capitals from Seoul to Jakarta, but today one also finds among their ranks Koreans, Taiwanese, Filipinos, Malaysians, and Thais. They manage factories in China and Thailand, run banks in Lao PDR and Cambodia, staff hospitals in Singapore and Brunei, and pilot passenger airlines from Hong Kong and Malaysia. The numbers engaged in these movements are difficult to ascertain, but they have clearly grown over the past decade and are likely to continue into the future in spite of the global economic crisis. Intracorporate transferees and the movements of professional managers and engineers are bound to grow with the extension of supply chains among East Asian economies as evidenced by the growth in the volume of intraregional trade in intermediate goods and commodities, related services, and direct foreign investments.

Type
Chapter
Information
Engaging East Asian Integration
States, Markets and the Movement of People
, pp. 160 - 192
Publisher: ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×