Asian Cities, Migrant Labor and Contested Spaces: (Routledge Contemporary Asia Series)

This volume explores how migration is playing a central role in the renewing and reworking of urban spaces in the fast growing and rapidly changing cities of Asia. Migration trends in Asia entered a new phase in the 1990s following the end of the Cold War which marked the advent of a renewed phase of globalization. Cities have become centrally implicated in globalization processes and, therefore, have become objects and sites of intense study. The contributors to this book reflect on the impact and significance of migration with a particular focus on the contested spaces that are emerging in urban contexts and the economic, social, religious and cultural domains with which they intersect. They also examines the roles and effects of different forms of migration in the cauldron of urban change, from low-skilled domestic migrants who maintain a close engagement with their rural homes, to highly skilled/professional transnational migrants, to legal and illegal international migrants who arrive with the hope of transforming their livelihoods. Providing a mosaic of insights into the links between migration, marginalization and contestation in Asia’s urban contexts, Asian Cities, Migrant Labor and Contested Spaces will be of interest to students and scholars of Asian studies, migration studies, urban studies and human geography.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Contemporary Urban Migration and a Theoretical Approach  1. Contestation and Exclusion in Asian Urban Spaces Under the Impact of Globalization: An Introduction  2. International and Intra-National Migrations: Human Mobility in Pacific Asian Cities in the Globalization Age  Part 1: The International Migration Dimension in Asian Cities  3. The Migrant as a Nexus of Social Relations: An Empirical Analysis  4. Post-Industrialism and Residencing ‘New Immigration’ in Singapore  5. Integrative Rhetoric and Exclusionary Realities in Bangladesh-Malaysia Migration Policies: Discourse on Networks and Development  6. Labouring for the Child: Transnational Experiences of Chinese Migrant Mothers and Children in Singapore  7. Ethnic Enclaves in Korean Cities: Formation, Residential Patterns and Communal Features  8. Circular Migration and its Socioeconomic Consequences: The Economic Marginality among Japanese Brazilian Migrants in Japan  9. Migrant Labour, Residential Conflict and the City: The Case of Foreign Workers’ Invasion of Residential Neighbourhoods in Penang, Malaysia  Part 2: The Domestic Migration Dimension in Asian Cities  10. Migrant Labour in the Factory Zone: Contested Spaces in the Extended Bangkok Region  11. Migrant Labour under the Shadow of the Hukou System: The Case of Guangdong  12. Marginalization of Rural Migrants in China’s Transitional Cities  13. Living at the Margins: Migration and the Contested Arena of Waste Re-Use Aquaculture Systems in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

About the Author :
Tai-Chee Wong is Associate Professor at National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Jonathan Rigg is Head of Department and Professor in the Department of Geography at Durham University, UK.  

Review :
"This collection of essays represents an important publication on Asian migration and ethnicity issues... the editors have organised a good volume that provides additional readings for academics and practitioners interested in Asian immigration and race/ethnicity, perfect for their libraries. The organisation and language of this book make it easy to read. The meticulous care with which the contributors report the methodology and data in the study also makes it possible for other researchers to replicate the findings in the future." - Yixuan Wang, Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; Journal of Contemporary Asia, 42:1