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Emigration States

Migration-Development Policymaking in the Asia-Pacific

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 January 2025

Matt Withers
Affiliation:
Australian National University

Summary

Guestworker migration has become an increasingly prominent feature within the economic landscape of the Asia-Pacific. Longstanding regional disparities have underscored the emergence of fragile remittance economies where a structural reliance on labour-export has offered an unsustainable 'fix' for stubborn developmental challenges. Combining political-economic and Foucauldian frames of analysis, this Element reconciles the macroeconomic contradictions of remittance economies with the political logics bound up in emigration policymaking, contending that new modalities of governance have emerged in the transition from developmental to emigration states. Comparing the policy histories of four diverse remittance economies in the region – Myanmar, the Philippines, Samoa, and Sri Lanka – it frames emigration policies as complex, inward-facing interventions that simultaneously promote and constrain mobility to address counterpoised economic and political pressures. Important variations are explored though the example of gendered migration bans, whereby emigration states have situated women's bodies as sites for resolving contextually specific social tensions accompanying labour-export.
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Emigration States
  • Matt Withers, Australian National University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009318716
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Emigration States
  • Matt Withers, Australian National University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009318716
Available formats
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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.

Emigration States
  • Matt Withers, Australian National University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009318716
Available formats
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