Managed Temporary Labour Migration of Pacific Islanders to Australia and New Zealand in the Early Twenty-first Century

ABSTRACT

Circular migration was one of several enduring themes in Graeme Hugo’s highly productive research career. Although his specialist field was Asian population movement, during the 2000s he became increasingly interested in labour migration in the Pacific Islands. This paper reviews the development of two managed circular migration schemes targeting Pacific labour that emerged following the UN High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2006. New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme and Australia’s Seasonal Worker Program (SWP) have attracted international attention as the kind of ‘best practice’ temporary labour migration schemes that Hugo had in mind when he emphasised the positive contributions that circular forms of mobility could make to development in both source and destination countries. The two schemes have transformed mobility between the participating countries and have played a major role in the negotiations over a free-trade agreement between Pacific Forum countries, including Australia and New Zealand. Although the schemes have been in operation for almost 10 years, this paper argues that they are not becoming ‘business as usual’; they embody complex systems of relationships between multiple stakeholders that require ongoing management to ensure that they do not become traps for low-skilled, low-paid ‘permanent’ temporary workers.     

Regulating migration to Australia and back to the Philippines: Applying a ‘diaspora strategies’ framework

This paper examines circular labour migration between Australia and the Philippines by bringing Australian immigration policies and Philippine diaspora strategies under the same analytical framework. An extensive Philippine bureaucracy regulates migrants at each stage of the circular migration cycle, and as a sending state it has an interest in migrants staying temporarily in host countries such as Australia. The requirement to return home at the end of an overseas work contract compels migrants to remain attached to the sending state, their homeland, and return subsequently. However, Australia is allowing a route for temporary migrants to apply for permanent residency while in the host country. This has implications for sending states that rely on migrant ties to the homeland. The paper argues that analysing the intersections between the themes of migration, development and diaspora strategies reveals the multiple meanings of temporariness during migration and in migration studies. It questions whether associating temporariness with precariousness and marginalization is an accurate representation of the complex conditions underpinning circular labour migration.     

Labour mobility in the public sector: the impact of job opportunities

This paper investigates the mobility of highly skilled labour, using doctors in public hospitals in Denmark as an example. From the perspective of regional development, the concentration of human capital is one of the contributors to regional growth and consequently to inequality between places, being associated most often with differences in economic growth between regions. The decentralisation of highly skilled public jobs to even out the concentration of human capital could be one way to stimulate growth outside city regions. However, such initiatives are somewhat dependent upon the cooperation of the highly skilled public employees, whose preferences have been little studied thus far. Based on data from a survey of 1600 publicly employed doctors, PLUM regression modelling was applied to test the relative significance of four professional preferences influencing choice of workplace. It was found that professional preferences have different influences on doctors’ choices, depending on their place of residence measured in terms of a location’s population density. The paper concludes that opportunities in employment depend on one’s stage in life and can serve to explain choices and mobility among highly skilled public employees.     

Mapping the Globalization of the Temporary Staffing Industry*

Very little is currently known about the globalization of the temporary staffing industry, a strategically significant sector given its role in promulgating wider labor market flexibility. This article starts to rectify this research lacuna in four ways: by conceptualizing the international expansion of temporary staffing and comparing it to other business service sectors, by identifying and mapping the top twenty transnational staffing agencies, by offering a typology of the leading transnational agencies based on their functional and geographic characteristics, and by charting a research agenda for future work on this sector.     

Interprovincial Migration,Population Redistribution,and Regional Development in China: 1990 and 2000 Census Comparisons*

Until recently, migration has had a limited role to play in China's space economy because of central‐planning logic and mechanisms. Mobility increases and economic restructuring since the 1980s, however, call for new conceptualizations of migration. Using interprovincial migration data from China's 1990 and 2000 censuses, I analyze migration rates, migration effectiveness, population growth, net migration flows, and spatial focusing of migration. The analysis supports the notions that migration is an increasingly effective factor of population redistribution and that it has a strong relationship with regional development. While these relationships have been documented in many other parts of the world, they have been less well addressed in the case of China. Regional divergence in economic development during the 1990s was accompanied by a marked increase in interprovincial migration and sharply concentrated migration flows, especially from relatively poor central and western provinces to the rapidly growing eastern region. These results suggest that migration theories that draw from experiences of capitalist economies may be of increased relevance to China.     

Spatial redistribution of the Torres Strait Islander population: a preliminary analysis

Until World War II, Torres Strait Islanders were restricted in their distribution to the Torres Strait itself. Since that time, migration to the Australian mainland has contributed to a significant redistribution with the majority of Torres Strait Islanders now resident in the major cities of eastern Australia. Despite the importance of migration in determining Torres Strait Islander involvement in the labour market, study of their population movement has been limited and such analysis as does exist is unsystematic, spatially restricted and generally dated. This paper is therefore an attempt to draw from the literature what is known about the redistribution of Torres Strait Islanders and to supplement this with an analysis of the most recently available internal migration data from the 1986 and 1991 censuses. While it appears that the search for employment was an important stimulant for migration in the past, this is probably less so now, not least because Torres Strait Islanders now find themselves located in places where labour markets exist. No evidence is found from the 1986 Census to support the idea of sustained redistribution away from areas of long standing settlement in northern Queensland. This contrasts intuitively with distribution patterns revealed by the 1991 Census, and the extent to which this discrepancy is due to migration or census error raises a critical issue in the analysis of Islander population change.     

Unemployment in Non-Metropolitan Australia: integrating geography,social and individual contexts

Despite a significant period of strong economic and jobs growth nationally, there is well-established evidence in Australia that the proceeds of this growth have not been shared equally, either between places or between individuals. Empirically, it is well known that particular socioeconomic groups have a higher risk of unemployment and it has become equally well established that there are particular geographic patterns of labour market disadvantage that suggest that local geographic context is also important. What is not well understood are the ways in which phenomena at the geographic level are associated with individual-level characteristics and other social contexts in ways that negatively impact on a range of social outcomes, including unemployment. The present paper specifically addresses this issue by using a multi-scalar approach and using survey data from the Housing, Income and Labour Force Dynamics Australia (HILDA) survey and aggregate level census data to model unemployment risk. The paper argues that to better understand unemployment and to add to sound policy development, approaches that incorporate a variety of contexts, including the impact of local geographies, are important.     

库鲁克沙漠风沙地貌与沙丘移动

库鲁克沙漠位于塔里木河下游以东,是塔克拉玛干沙漠的重要组成部分。利用风况资料和Google Earth卫星影像,对该沙漠的风沙地貌及其移动特征进行分析。结果表明:库鲁克沙漠风能环境属于低至中等;合成输沙势方向为西南至西南偏西方向;方向变率属于中等。具有风积和风蚀两种地貌类型,风积地貌类型主要包括平沙地、灌丛沙丘、新月形沙垄、新月形沙丘及沙丘链、复合新月形沙丘和复合型沙丘链,风蚀地貌类型主要为雅丹。沙漠西部新月形沙丘的移动方向为西南偏西方向,与当地合成风向大体一致。沙丘移动速率为9.5~37.8 m·a^-1,呈现明显的空间差异,主要取决于当地风况、沙丘高度和沙丘密度等因素,与沙丘高度和沙丘密度呈指数负相关关系。沙丘的形成发育及其移动是由多种因素相互作用的复杂过程,而这种复杂性塑造了丰富的风沙地貌类型及其区域差异性。     

水库移民中安置性移民与开发性移民的比较研究

建国以来, 中国水库移民安置经历了一个从安置性移民向开发性移民转变的过程。分析比较研究两类移民的本质差别, 有助于认识和掌握社会主义市场经济条件下开发性移民的基本规律性。遵循规律, 探讨问题, 促进开发性移民健康发展。     

长三角区域经济发展中的劳动力迁移流动研究

劳动力的迁移流动及其区域效应是当今区域经济学关注的重点。通过对区域经济发展进程中的劳动力迁移流动态势及区域效应的分析,可以深入了解中国区域发展进程的经济社会演化态势,并对中国制定区域经济发展政策提供实证依据。利用第五次人口普查的数据分析可知,长三角区域经济发展进程中呈现了劳动力高强度集聚、长三角内迁移流动活跃、劳动力迁移强度与经济发展水平显著相关等劳动力迁移流动态势,与此同时,长三角劳动力迁移流动对长三角各地区的受教育程度、人才密度、城市化水平等方面将造成影响。在未来,经济社会演变对长三角劳动力的迁移流动将产生新的影响。     

Gender and Migration Policies in Southeast and East Asia: Legal Protection and Sociocultural Empowerment of Unskilled Migrant Women

This paper is concerned with how existing migration policies affect individual migrant women's choices, in particular, with the advancement, or consolidation, of a migrants' rights perspective. The focus is thereby on those migrants classified as unskilled, who constitute the largest and most vulnerable category among migrants. The analysis of migration policies has conventionally been approached from a state/government‐centred viewpoint that sees states as the key actors. This paper, however, emphasises a larger number of actors ‐ governmental and non‐governmental ‐ as well as the power relations among them to argue that protection through “legal regulation” in the absence of actual implementation is an incomplete solution to alleviate unfair labour conditions that migrants in general, and migrant women specifically, experience. Measures designed to “protect” migrants must be accompanied by measures that empower them, a role that has largely been taken on by existing migrant worker non‐governmental organisations (NGOs). Focussing on intra‐Asian migration flows in which Southeast Asia is the main labour sender and East Asia the receiver of Southeast Asian migrants, the paper explores the nexus between law and civic activism in the specific subject area of international labour migration and its gender implications.     

人口流迁对长江经济带区域经济差距的影响及空间溢出效应

人口流迁对区域经济差距是扩大效应还是缩小效应的争论一直存在,文章利用长江经济带104个城市2001—2017年的空间面板数据,对此议题再作分析。主要结论为：1）对于全局区域经济差距,人口流动、人口迁移与经济差距存在倒“U”型的非线性关系：早期为扩大效应,后期为收敛效应,这与中国梯度发展战略和“先富带动后富,最终实现共同富裕”的阶段化发展理念吻合。2）对于省内区域经济差距,人口流动亦表现为先扩大后收敛的作用,人口迁移则仅表现为扩大效应而无收敛效应。人口流动与人口迁移作用差异来源于后者户籍变更所带来的经济行为和资源配置空间转换。3）考虑空间效应后,判断人口流迁与区域经济差距的内生关系变得相对复杂,但更为全面客观;效应分解显示,人口流动和人口迁移最终是利于区域均衡发展的,其中溢出效应发挥了重要作用。     

Globalisation and the pattern of inbound tourism in Australia

International tourist flows to Australia are examined from the perspective of globalisation. The factors influencing such flows are identified and their geographical impact outlined. Inbound tourism is shown to be growing quickly in both absolute and relative terms and to have a metropolitan emphasis that contrasts with the non‐metropolitan focus of domestic tourism. Tourism illustrates many of the social and cultural changes occurring in contemporary society; the nature of tourism is changing as society changes with a result that new forms of tourism are emerging. Particularly noteworthy is the shift from mass to ‘new tourism’. The nature and likely impact of these changes in Australia is assessed. The paper concludes that growth rates comparable with those achieved in the past might not be sustainable.     

新型城镇化背景下流动特征与农民工回流意愿的关系

使用2016年中国流动人口动态监测调查数据,借助描述性分析和多分类Logistic回归模型分析方法,探讨新型城镇化背景下农民工回流意愿的现状与特点、流动特征与回流意愿的关系。研究发现,农民工的回流意愿很弱,有回流意愿并打算近期回流的农民工比例较低,回流地域以原居地为主、户籍地的乡镇和区县政府所在地为辅。模型结果显示,流动特征显著影响农民工的回流意愿：跨省流动者“打算回流”的概率大于省内流动者;流动时间短和非举家流动者“打算回流”“近期回流”“回原居地”的概率分别大于流动时间长和举家流动者;有留守子女者“打算回流”“近期回流”的概率大于没有留守子女者。最后,建议政府实施以“异地市民化”为主、“回流式市民化”为辅的市民化策略;继续深化制度改革,为农民工流动扫清制度壁垒和提供均等化公共服务;促进中西部和东北部地区的经济社会发展,出台鼓励农民工回乡创业和就业的优惠政策等方式来推进以农民工市民化为重点的新型城镇化发展。     

贵州省生态移民经济可持续发展研究

贵州实现全面小康的难点在于生态移民。本文以贵州省为研究区域,采用现场调查、统计分析的手段,探讨影响生态移民经济可持续发展的因素。研究表明,生态移民搬迁以后的家庭收入水平、家庭债务负担、就业状况、培训状况、子女就学状况及医疗卫生状况等与其实现经济可持续发展有着极为密切的关系,其中收入水平是反映移民经济可持续发展最重要的方面,家庭劳动力数量、从事的职业及是否参加过技术技能培训等因素对收入都产生了显著的影响。因此,获得持续稳定的收入来源是移民实现经济可持续发展的前提和保障,从政策上帮助移民就业,让移民参与有利于就业的技术技能培训,是实现移民可持续发展的重要途径。具体而言,一是政府、企业和移民三方联动,采取自主创业、区域劳务合作、增加城镇公益性岗位等措施有效促进移民实现就业;二是通过开展现代农业实用技术培训、针对性的岗位技能培训、文化知识道德素养提升培训等内容帮助移民提升生产方式和生活方式的转型能力。本研究为实现生态移民可持续发展提供重要的参考与借鉴。     

基于产业协调的"双转移"战略背景下广东欠发达山区劳动力转移分析——以梅州市为例

运用产业结构偏离度和协同系数分析方法,以梅州市为例,从产业协调发展角度,分析"双转移"战略背景下欠发达山区劳动力转移特征.分析认为:欠发达山区实施"双转移"战略必须坚持承接产业转移与劳动力转移同步,并加速劳动力转移,"异地迁移、本地转移、异地回流"是产业转移背景下的欠发达山区劳动力转移新模式.提高劳动力转移能力、增强劳...     

Sectoral Shifts and Occupational Migration in the United States

Abstract

This research is grounded in notions of differential economic restructuring across employment sectors and geographic space, as well as migration selectivity by occupation. A series of unconstrained competing-destinations models were employed to analyze the response by workers in thirteen occupational categories to sectoral employment change, average wages, and distance. As was hypothesized, workers in occupations that require high levels of education and skills are more responsive, in terms of migration, to economic opportunities in alternative labor-market areas. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that highly educated and skilled workers migrate longer distances. Further investigation suggests that opportunities for highly educated and skilled workers may be clustering in relatively few areas that are in relatively close proximity.     

A multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme: A tale from Tamil Nadu

This paper provides a multi‐dimensional analysis of the impacts of the Indian Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme using a case study from rural Tamil Nadu. Drawing on structured interviews in households and semi‐structured interviews with local employers and officials, we analyse the effects of the workfare scheme when it is widely and properly implemented. We distinguish between different conceptualizations of the work scheme as a means of welfare provision, labour market policy and intervention directed towards other objectives. We found that the goals of the scheme were fulfilled unevenly in the given context. Among other findings, we show that positive effects on the welfare of participating and non‐participating households were accompanied by adverse effects on the local economy and negligible impact on out‐migration for work.     

A new look at population change and regional development in Aotearoa New Zealand

In New Zealand, population change is interlinked with regional development. Places growing in population attract regional investment, while regional investment—or lack thereof—can change migration patterns. However, to determine the appropriate response to population change for a community, it is important to understand that population change involves much more than “just” migration. Specifically, it involves interactions between the three components of population change: natural change (births minus deaths), net migration (international and internal) and population ageing (changing cohort size). For example, migration can be negative, but growth can be positive due to underlying natural increase or growth in cohort size. Responses need to differ, depending on these drivers. The goal of this article is to provide new insights into these interactions using data for 275 cities, towns and rural centres (hereafter “urban places”) in New Zealand for the period 1976 to 2013. The results show that natural change has been consistently positive for most urban places up to the present, although projections indicate that in the future this component will become negative across much of the country. At the same time, net migration shows considerable spatial variation, not only in terms of volume, but also direction (negative or positive), which differs markedly by age. A net gain of people of retirement age can offset a net loss of young adults to deliver overall growth, and vice‐versa, but the two have very different implications for longer term growth. An analysis of the drivers of net migration using GIS and machine learning techniques provides an indication of the importance of economic conditions (land‐use and access to markets), lifestyle, access to essential services (hospitals and education) and their interaction with age in regional change. The results show that population age is the best predictor of migration. Younger people are moving to cities for tertiary education and work and older people near or in retirement are moving to smaller lifestyle towns but also want to be close to amenities such as hospitals and international airports. The research also shows that natural lifestyle characteristics (landscape and climate), in combination with age are just as important as economic conditions for understanding migration. Regional development, such as infrastructure that helps business (ports and services) is important for the working age population but not necessarily the retirement age group. When regional development, age/life‐cycle stage and lifestyle come together, such as in Queenstown and Tauranga, net migration gain is high.     

Sectoral Shifts and Occupational Migration in the United States

This research is grounded in notions of differential economic restructuring across employment sectors and geographic space, as well as migration selectivity by occupation. A series of unconstrained competing‐destinations models were employed to analyze the response by workers in thirteen occupational categories to sectoral employment change, average wages, and distance. As was hypothesized, workers in occupations that require high levels of education and skills are more responsive, in terms of migration, to economic opportunities in alternative labor‐market areas. However, the results do not support the hypothesis that highly educated and skilled workers migrate longer distances. Further investigation suggests that opportunities for highly educated and skilled workers may be clustering in relatively few areas that are in relatively close proximity.