Mobility within Asia: new challenges and new trends

The book Mobility within on the Asia: new challenges and new trends is the outcome of the meetings and workshops on the migration within Asia held at Korean Studies in Department of Oriental Studies at Sapienza University of Rome. Its articles aim to con- tribute to the studies of migration within Asia and widen the view on the recent trends from multiple perspectives. Why migration within Asia? Recent surveys show interesting changes revealed in the related studies, such as the dramatic increase in international mi-gration within Asia and its new directions, with migrants preferring to move to neigh- bouring countries and inter-regions with new scenarios within Asia comprehending la- bour-sending countries and labour-receiving countries (Piyasiri Wickramasekera,2 2000). The long tradition of semi and low-skilled workers moving to fill vacant employments known as 3Ds: ‘dirty, dangerous and difficult’ continue, but recent trends indicate high- skilled workers who prefer inter-regional migration instead of leaving the continent. Economic and social developments remain principal push-factors of labour migrants, students mobility, international marriages (mostly women). Past historical events were also behind people moving forcedly or spontaneously. As for forced migration, we can mention Japan that recruited 40,000 Korean workers during colonial period (between 1921 and 1941), to whom we must add some 25 million people who migrated between the 1890s and the 1930s from Chinese provinces to Manchuria (Stephen Castles, Hin de Haas, Mark J. Miller, 2013).3 As for South-East Asia, we must reckon the mass population transfers after Indian independence in 1947, with people moving in both directions: Hin- dus a​n​Mi