Manolo Abella

The Effect of the Global Economic Crisis on Asian Migrant Workers and Governments' Responses

It will take more time for the full scale of the global economic crisis to unravel and for its impact on the cross border movements of labor, their conditions of employment and possible return to become manifest.1 Although the recession in the United States started well over a year before the collapse of sub-prime financial market migration and remittances grew strongly and rapidly in many parts of the world obscuring any early signs of the effects of the on-coming crisis. Many factors remain uncertain even today, including how the fiscal and monetary stimuli that many governments have hurriedly crafted are working to revive afflicted economies. While there have been daily reports of firms shutting down and laying off

The Movement of People in Asia: Internal, Intra-Regional and International Migration

The comprehensive overview of Asian-Pacific migration summarizes early population movements during the colonial period and describes the major types of contemporary Asian population movements: (1) environmental refugees, (2) political refugees, (3) internal population movements, (4) contract labor migration, (5) migration of permanent settlers, (6) business related movements and tourism. Projections of net international migration are given. Population growth, employment absorption and emigration pressures are likely to contribute to a large mobility potential for Asia, with significant implications for Australia.

The Troublesome Gulf: Research on Migration to the Middle East

This review of recent research outlines changes in the composition and organization of labor supplies to the Middle East since the 1970s and indicates some effects on both sending and receiving countries. Before the recent Gulf war, Asians increasingly supplanted Arab migrant workers, entering the Gulf labor force through kinship networks, recruitment agencies and project-tied migration. At the national level, this emigration has sometimes led to severe labor shortages, as in Pakistan. Another effect is the impact of remittances on saving and investment behavior. A few detailed studies about countries of origin have provided insights into the push factors of the migration process; however, a major problem limiting research is poor survey and census data. In addition, research is lacking on the conditions of Asian migrant workers in the Middle East, the impact of emigration on demographic trends, and the important link between migration and development.