Asian and Pacific Migration Journal

This article focuses on the situation of women migrants displaced by the Three Gorges Project (TGP) in China. It examines the participation and types of work undertaken by women migrants in the resettlement process, the strategies of the government and women migrants in coping with risks (especially impoverishment) that migrant families face after physical displacement, and some gender-related issues relevant to planning in the TGP. Data show that women migrants have limited opportunities to participate in the decision-making process of displacement. Following resettlement, women migrants face difficulties in finding employment in the non-agricultural sector while those who remain in the agricultural sector encounter extreme difficulties in attempting to engage in new agricultural practices in their new environments. The study found that a gendered perspective in planning for livelihood reconstruction and skills training is generally inadequate or absent.

This article focuses on the right of abode movement that emerged in Hong Kong soon after the 1997 handover to China. Collective action was taken by thousands of mainland-born people with Hong Kong parents to fight for the right of abode in Hong Kong. The political and legal implications of the right-of-abode issue had been widely examined in the media and academic world. This article offers another angle to the issue by exploring why mainland-born people with Hong Kong parents sacrificed their work, studies and lives in mainland China to fight for the right of abode in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews conducted with 14 mainland-born right of abode seekers shed light on the construction of collective identity and the relationship between collective identity and individual identity among movement participants.

This paper examines the family relationships of five ‘astronaut’ wives from Hong Kong following their migration to Brisbane, Australia. We focused specifically on the women's experiences of spousal and parental relationships, along with changes in their roles and responsibilities that have accompanied their emigration with their children while their husbands remained in Hong Kong. There are two major observations from their accounts. The first is an apparent paradox in that while the women appear to have embraced a more modern lifestyle — living separately from their husbands and taking on greater day-to-day decision-making responsibilities — they have assumed more traditional roles. They have full responsibility for child rearing and they are totally financially dependent on their husbands. The second observation is that the women's migration experiences differed according to their perceptions of the nature and quality of spousal relationship. Thus, while these women appear to be in similar circumstances, a closer examination of their lived experiences revealed significant differences.

This study explores the social identities of Filipino seafarers, an important component of temporary labor migration from the Philippines. Three major questions were examined, namely, their social memberships, the place of national identity vis-à-vis other social identities, and seafarers' perceptions of their Filipino identity. Overall, religion, friends and family were the top three social identities mentioned by all seafarers. Length of work experience abroad was found to be associated with the importance seafarers attached to their group affiliations. The study offers some explanations on why national identity was less salient compared with other social identities.

The lack of data presents a fundamental challenge in measuring internal or international migration. Focusing on the case of India, this research note tackles the following aspects in the measurement of internal migration in India: a survey of migration-related questions included in various censuses, an assessment of the different criteria to determine migration status, and a comparison of migration data derived from census data and the National Sample Survey. Due to recent developments, there is a need to review these approaches to ensure that they capture new realities.