ABSTRACT

This chapter provides an historical backdrop to the diverse strands of contemporary Asian migration considered in this volume. It explains the causes and pathways of Asia’s first mobility revolution, which took place between 1850 and the 1930s. It examines the relationship between migration and Asian modernity, as migrant networks channelled new political ideas and new cultural practices across frontiers. It proceeds to examine the growing regulation of both immigration and emigration in Asia in the aftermath of the economic depression of the 1930s. Through the upheaval of war and decolonisation, a new legal and political regime emerged to govern Asian migration – and we still live with many of its institutions. The final section of the chapter considers the decline and then the reorientation of Asian migration in the post-independence era, culminating in the resurgence of Asian migration from the 1980s.