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This paper has a four-fold goal: (1) it examines the difficulties faced by Japan, Korea and Taiwan in developing and implementing multicultural programs for their newly arriving migrants; (2) it offers an analysis of indigenous ethnic formation and migration of workers and marriage migrants in the context of ongoing debates on multiculturalism in East Asia; (3) it analyzes narratives behind the educational reforms to shed light on the political contention surrounding multicultural governance in the region; and (4) it discusses why educational institutions in East Asia seem uninterested in offering courses on multiculturalism. This paper suggests that the three countries will continue to face substantial difficulties in institutionalizing their own democratic multiculturalism(s) due to pressures from global and domestic forces. We expect that the three countries will continue to modify their approaches to multicultural governance despite institutional constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview article examines the major similarities and differences among the three countries in East Asia - Japan, Taiwan and Korea - in terms of their immigration policies and observed flows as an introduction to three country- specific papers and a contribution on the simulation of economic impacts of different migration scenarios in Asia. These papers are from a two-year project, "From Origin to Destination: Policy Alternatives for Managing Two- Way Migration Pathways in Asia," funded by the Korea Foundation. The papers demonstrate important common patterns, including the special treatment of ethnic return migrants, population aging and demands for low-skilled migrant workers in the industrial and service sectors, the strict policy on temporary migration for low-skilled migrant workers, and the concentration of women in marriage migration and as carers in labor migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migration into, out of, and within East Asia (comprising Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia) will undoubtedly increase as we continue into the twenty-first century. We need sustained research to provide fresh insights into transnational migrants' changing subjective positions and power as they move in/out of East Asia, constructing complex social locations as they live their lives transnationally. The papers in this special issue focus on three issues that are of pertinence to the transnational migrations and the resulting migrant transnationalisms of those who move for work, education, marriage and retirement, and as refugees, in the context of East Asia: the power structures (including the institutional regulatory frameworks of sending and receiving societies) within which migrants must operate; migrants' multiple and shifting social positions as they move; and the transnational connections and networks they maintain over the course of their migration journeys. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of labor brokering or contracting that helps to explain why employers turn to foreign workers to fill certain vacant jobs, and how the presence of foreign workers brought to a country by labor contractors can affect the size and duration of migration flows. The major conclusion is that East Asian policies that aim to avoid the settlement of unskilled foreign workers also make labor brokering a prominent feature of labor migration and migrant labor markets in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]