This book is the first to cover the research of whole aspects of international mobility to and from Taiwan of both skilled and unskilled workers. The migration of skilled workers is a field that has not been well researched, although it is becoming very important for the economic growth of newly developing countries. The “brain circulation” through which workers who return to their home country bring back technology and the business style of a developed country contributed greatly to Taiwan in the 1980s and1990s. However, according to the author’s research, there is a little expectation that returnees now will contribute as in the past, as the proportion of students leaving Taiwan to study abroad is decreasing. Taiwanese companies therefore are seeking skilled human resources from developed countries in other ways. The author also found that some Taiwanese have been to China, Singapore or Japan in response to companies and universities’ recruiting by offering high monetary compensation. This book clarifies those aspects of international skilled labor mobility to and from Taiwan and also analyzes the various issues regarding unskilled foreign laborers in Taiwan. There has been a gradual increase in unskilled foreign laborers, working both in industry and in domestic care in Taiwan. This book elucidates the various controversial issues arising from the increased presence of foreign laborers—for instance, the costs of employing foreign laborers, or problems related to the foreign workforce.

The proximity of industries is strongly related to inter-industry labor mobility, and there is some evidence that workers who move to closely similar industries receive higher wages. Knowledge is transmitted more easily when industries operate, and workers work, in close physical proximity.

In Let Their People Come, Lant Pritchett discusses five "irresistible forces" of global labor migration, and the "immovable ideas" that form a political backlash against it. Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.

International labour migration can be characterized in three ways - as human aspiration, tradition, and necessity. For some people, working overseas is a dream. For others, international labour mobility is a tradition. For a great number of people however, international labour migration is an economic necessity. It is the only viable solution to realize their basic human right to a decent life. GMS worker movements to Thailand typify all three characterizations of international labour mobility. While this book focuses on the economic dimensions of international labour emigration, principally from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam to Thailand, it recognizes at the very outset the equal standing of non-economic motivations for migration.

In this empirical study, Saskia Sassen offers a fresh understanding of the processes of international migration. Focusing on immigration into the US from 1960 to 1985 and the part played by American economic activities abroad, as well as foreign investment in the US, she examines the various ways in which the internationalization of production contributes to the formation and direction of labor migration.