One of the biggest challenges facing our region in the 21st century is the large-scale cross-border movement of people. Key issues include international labour migration; migration flows provoked by political instability and natural disasters, other refugee flows, human trafficking and people smuggling. The Workshop will examine these and related security issues and border-management strategies of major states in the region, in the face of intensified transnational economic and social processes and the expanding global governance regime. Specifically, the Workshop will focus on policy responses to migrants and refugees and migration processes at the border and across borders, against the backdrop of four major challenges:
- The regulation of populations and cross-border movements;
- Security and epidemiological surveillance issues;
- International agreements; and
- New norms of global governance developed by regional and international NGOs and other international organisations.
The Workshop aims to
- Inform the participants and the wider regional and global audience about the main migration challenges in the Asia-Pacific region
- Contribute at a high level to the debate about globalisation, the cross-border movement of people, and evolving border control regimes at a regional, and from an Asia-Pacific regional perspective
- Provide information to policy makers for future policy development and regional collaboration in the Asia Pacific region
- Provide an input to the Asia Pacific Migration Research Forum Network program; the Asian Studies Association of Australia’s ‘Asia-Pacific Research Futures Network’ objectives [See http://www.sueztosuva.org.au/index.php]; and the Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia’s 2006 Colloquium.