Introduction to 'Guests and Strangers: Asian Workers in Transnational Perspective'

• Published in: Journal of Asian American studies 2019-02, Vol.22 (1), p.vii-xvi
• Main Author: Rodriguez, Robyn Magalit
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acculturation; American Studies; Asian American studies; Asian Americans; Case Studies; Citizenship; Diaspora; Employment; Employment Experience; Employment Patterns; Ethnic Groups; Family (Sociological Unit); Globalization; Historiography; Human Capital; Immigrants; Immigration; Labor; Manufacturing; Migrant workers; Migrants; Migration; Minority & ethnic groups; Mythology; Noncitizens; Racialization; Scholars; Social Networks; Sociology; Studies; Temporary Employment; Transnationalism; Wages; Working class
• ISSN: 1097-2129; 1096-8598; 1096-8598
• DOI: 10.1353/jaas.2019.0001

[...]not unlike their counterparts in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, Canada and the United States have expanded their temporary labor migration programs and are drawing from different Asian countries to fill professional and increasingly low-skill, low-wage jobs.9 At the same time, the reason that migration is temporary is not merely economic: xenophobia along with emergent and older forms of racialization deem specific groups as outsiders, fit only for labor and never for citizenship; at best they are "guests," at worst "strangers." [...]Hsia examines the organizing efforts of so-called marriage migrants in Taiwan.15 Though most of this special issue focuses specifically on labor migrants, the fact is the migration of Asian women is rather complex. [...]in addition to this collection offering a novel and innovative series of "conversations" between scholars and activists, the cover of this special issue includes forms of visual art by migrant activists. According to Park, in the United States since 1998, "at least two of every three permanent immigrants under employment categories were Asian, and a staggering three of every four temporary skilled workers were also Asian."