Introduction: mobile aspirations : youth im/mobilities in the Asia-Pacific

Shanthi Robertson, Yi'En Cheng, Brenda S. A. Yeoh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Young people in the Asia-Pacific increasingly move around for work, education and leisure, and combinations thereof. Asians make up 41 per cent of international migrants worldwide (United Nations 2017) and the region represents diverse flows of both inbound and outbound, short- and long-term migrations. Settler nations with aging populations, like Australia and New Zealand, strategically seek to draw on the mobility aspirations of burgeoning youth populations elsewhere in the region as a migrant labour force but also as consumers of education and tourism experiences. Emerging economic powers like China and India seek to send vast cohorts of young people abroad to obtain skills, and simultaneously attract diaspora returnees and highly skilled foreigners back to work and invest. The increasing reach of multinational corporations across the region creates new opportunities for the circular mobilities of professionals, tracing new patterns of movement alongside traditional migration routes for manual labourers and domestic workers. Intra-regional mobility is increasingly important for youth. For example, while more than half of all tertiary international students globally are from Asia (UNESCO 2013), East Asia and the Pacific are an increasingly significant destination region, hosting 19 per cent of all international enrolments (UNESCO 2016). Further, new virtual mobilities, such as cross-border education programmes and digital outsourcing, position immobile young students and workers – as well as those who prefer to ‘stay’ rather than ‘move’ – into transnational and transregional networks and processes even as they remain in place.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)613-625
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Intercultural Studies
Volume39
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018

Keywords

  • Asia-Pacific
  • immigrants
  • youth

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Introduction: mobile aspirations : youth im/mobilities in the Asia-Pacific'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this