Stephen Castles

International migration is an important factor in social, cultural and political change in East Asian. The paper discusses both emigration and immigration countries, using the Philippines as an example for the former, and Japan and Malaysia for the latter. It is argued that population mobility is an important element of the cross-border flows and transnational networks that constitute globalization. Understanding of specific patterns in East Asia requires linking migration to experiences of colonialism, post-colonialis,, nation-state formation, and economic change. The key question is where East Asia will follow the western experience of labour migration leading to unplanned settlement and multicultural societies, and in the long run to modification of models of national identity and citizenship. There are important historical and political differences between western and Asian experiences which make it hard to predict such developments. Nonetheless there is already considerable evidence that governments are losing control of migration and that unplanned settlement and community formation is occurring. This makes it important to intensify research on social, cultural and political aspects of mobility, to inform more realistic policies on migration and settlement.