The field of migration studies has sometimes been accused of remaining separate from other fields of study in contemporary social sciences, such as globalization, technological innovation, geographical mobility, and the advent of new tools and practices of long-distance communication. In turn, migration scholars complain that their research is little known or valorized outside their field of specialization.

Moreover, knowledge about East Asia, despite its growing prominence in the economic and political landscape of the contemporary world, remains limited and superficial in the western hemisphere. In addition, the current geopolitical tensions seem to reinforce the perception of an ‘other’, distant, impenetrable and hostile world.

By contrast, this book has the remarkable merit of providing a contribution that addresses these issues. It covers mobility and communication, new technologies, digital platforms and e-commerce, transnational entrepreneurship and political mobilizations across borders, families and gender issues, globalized labour and transnational migration. Throughout, it closely examines the social transformations in East Asia and provides information on phenomena hitherto largely neglected by academic and public debate.

In the field investigations discussed by the various chapters, the authors call into question established concepts in the globalization debate, such as that of spatio-temporal compression introduced by David Harvey at the end of the 1980s (Harvey 1989); that of mobility, linked above all to John Urry (2007); and that of diaspora, which refers to multiple historical and geographical contexts (Cohen 2008). In addition, a series of themes linked to the development of digitalization and virtual connections are studied in their economic and social context-specific applications. Of no less importance is the analysis of the links between exchanges that take place in the virtual space and the processes that take place in the real spaces of the contemporary world, as in the case of political mobilization. The chapters in this book therefore demonstrate a theoretical awareness and a conceptual breadth that enable them to capture the interest of a range of readers beyond devotees of migration studies.

When analysing migratory phenomena, an important aspect emerges from the various studies in the volume: the diversity of migrants. International migration is generally perceived and thematized as a form of ‘problematic mobility’ (Anderson 2017), that is, in essence, as movements of poor populations across borders.