Pub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2023.2189226
Iori Hamada
ABSTRACT Since the late 20th century, skilled labour migration has become a primary channel for resolving the increased global competition, ageing workforces, and skill shortages facing industrialised countries. Despite this ongoing policy trend, skilled migrants – who are increasingly from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESBs), including Asia – confront barriers to securing employment that is commensurate with their skill levels, which exposes them to an array of social and economic vulnerabilities. This article uses qualitative data to examine post-migration employment disadvantages among an under-researched group of Asian NESB skilled migrants in Australia: Japanese independent professionals. The findings show that their employment disadvantages in the host labour market can be attributed to what is termed here multilateral contextual gaps in skills transfer, rather than simply a lack of competence, knowledge, or work experience. The article concludes by identifying the implications of the study, including policy changes that would help improve the skills utilisation and retention of skilled migrants in Australia, which appear to be hampered by the host country’s human capital-based, market-driven skills regimes. These changes are urgent given the imperative for societies such as Australia to revive their economies in the post-pandemic era through higher intakes of skilled migrants.
{"title":"Employment Disadvantages among Asian NESB Skilled Migrants in Australia: The Case of Japanese Independent Professionals","authors":"Iori Hamada","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2023.2189226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2023.2189226","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the late 20th century, skilled labour migration has become a primary channel for resolving the increased global competition, ageing workforces, and skill shortages facing industrialised countries. Despite this ongoing policy trend, skilled migrants – who are increasingly from non-English speaking backgrounds (NESBs), including Asia – confront barriers to securing employment that is commensurate with their skill levels, which exposes them to an array of social and economic vulnerabilities. This article uses qualitative data to examine post-migration employment disadvantages among an under-researched group of Asian NESB skilled migrants in Australia: Japanese independent professionals. The findings show that their employment disadvantages in the host labour market can be attributed to what is termed here multilateral contextual gaps in skills transfer, rather than simply a lack of competence, knowledge, or work experience. The article concludes by identifying the implications of the study, including policy changes that would help improve the skills utilisation and retention of skilled migrants in Australia, which appear to be hampered by the host country’s human capital-based, market-driven skills regimes. These changes are urgent given the imperative for societies such as Australia to revive their economies in the post-pandemic era through higher intakes of skilled migrants.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"720 - 739"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48918812","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-16DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2023.2189690
D. Tomsa, N. Bax
ABSTRACT For more than a decade, the quality of democracy around the world has been declining, but we still know little about the diverse impacts of this democratic recession on environmental politics. This article provides new insights about the implications of democratic regression for environmental politics in Indonesia, which is Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, a globally important biodiversity hotspot, and an example of democratic decline. Based on an analysis of academic literature, international and Indonesian media reports, as well as survey data, this article argues that in Indonesia, democratic decline has had several detrimental consequences for environmental politics. In particular, we argue that the nationalist framing of infrastructure development, along with controversial new laws and tightening restrictions on both activists and academics are undermining prospects for environmental protection. The article also highlights some silver linings that provide hope for both Indonesia’s democracy and its embattled environment.
{"title":"Democratic Regression and Environmental Politics in Indonesia","authors":"D. Tomsa, N. Bax","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2023.2189690","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2023.2189690","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT For more than a decade, the quality of democracy around the world has been declining, but we still know little about the diverse impacts of this democratic recession on environmental politics. This article provides new insights about the implications of democratic regression for environmental politics in Indonesia, which is Southeast Asia’s largest democracy, a globally important biodiversity hotspot, and an example of democratic decline. Based on an analysis of academic literature, international and Indonesian media reports, as well as survey data, this article argues that in Indonesia, democratic decline has had several detrimental consequences for environmental politics. In particular, we argue that the nationalist framing of infrastructure development, along with controversial new laws and tightening restrictions on both activists and academics are undermining prospects for environmental protection. The article also highlights some silver linings that provide hope for both Indonesia’s democracy and its embattled environment.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"740 - 760"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48910717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-04-03DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2022.2090502
Wikke Jansen
ABSTRACT This article explores the lived experiences of queer Indonesian women and transmen in urban centres in Bali and Java. It is based on a multi-sited ethnographic study that took place between 2017 and 2020 among queer individuals and groups, including activists, scholars and religious leaders. The recent surge in attention to the variety of subjectivities gathered under the catch-all terms ‘LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)’ and ‘queer’ has been accompanied by an increase in institutionalised discrimination and social stigmatisation. Although these developments affect all queer Indonesians, the experiences of those who were labelled female at birth are coloured by their particular positions on a familial, societal, legal and religious level. This article analyses the diverse range of experiences, strategies and alignments that arise from the relative invisibility and exclusion of queer women and transmen from queer as well as heteronormative spaces and discourse. I suggest that while invisibility contributes to the marginalisation of queer women and transmen in Indonesia, it is also instrumental to how they negotiate their position in a heteronormative context. Therefore, the increased visibility of the queer community risks intensifying multiple marginalisations along the axes of gender, class and religion.
{"title":"Living on the Line: Gendered Invisibilities among Queer Women and Transmen in Indonesia","authors":"Wikke Jansen","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2022.2090502","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2022.2090502","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the lived experiences of queer Indonesian women and transmen in urban centres in Bali and Java. It is based on a multi-sited ethnographic study that took place between 2017 and 2020 among queer individuals and groups, including activists, scholars and religious leaders. The recent surge in attention to the variety of subjectivities gathered under the catch-all terms ‘LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)’ and ‘queer’ has been accompanied by an increase in institutionalised discrimination and social stigmatisation. Although these developments affect all queer Indonesians, the experiences of those who were labelled female at birth are coloured by their particular positions on a familial, societal, legal and religious level. This article analyses the diverse range of experiences, strategies and alignments that arise from the relative invisibility and exclusion of queer women and transmen from queer as well as heteronormative spaces and discourse. I suggest that while invisibility contributes to the marginalisation of queer women and transmen in Indonesia, it is also instrumental to how they negotiate their position in a heteronormative context. Therefore, the increased visibility of the queer community risks intensifying multiple marginalisations along the axes of gender, class and religion.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"300 - 317"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41536327","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-26DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2023.2165625
H. Yoshimatsu
ABSTRACT Since the 2010s, infrastructure investment has emerged as a critical field for Japan’s foreign policy and international relations. This article examines major characteristics of the development of Japan’s external engagement in infrastructure investment from a socio-cultural perspective. It argues that key political figures played a pivotal role in paving the way for Japan’s policy shift in infrastructure investment based on social relationality to engage in interactions to build trustworthy relationships. The article also contends that the Japanese government adopted confrontational and accommodating policy options towards China, which reflected inclusivity and complementation in the zhongyong dialectics. Moreover, Japan’s policy developments indicate that the logic of relationality, which is sustained by socio-cultural practices in East Asian societies, could explain crucial characteristics of diplomatic policies and relations among East Asian countries.
{"title":"Rationality and Relationality: A Socio-Cultural Perspective on Japan’s Strategy for Infrastructure Investment","authors":"H. Yoshimatsu","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2023.2165625","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2023.2165625","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Since the 2010s, infrastructure investment has emerged as a critical field for Japan’s foreign policy and international relations. This article examines major characteristics of the development of Japan’s external engagement in infrastructure investment from a socio-cultural perspective. It argues that key political figures played a pivotal role in paving the way for Japan’s policy shift in infrastructure investment based on social relationality to engage in interactions to build trustworthy relationships. The article also contends that the Japanese government adopted confrontational and accommodating policy options towards China, which reflected inclusivity and complementation in the zhongyong dialectics. Moreover, Japan’s policy developments indicate that the logic of relationality, which is sustained by socio-cultural practices in East Asian societies, could explain crucial characteristics of diplomatic policies and relations among East Asian countries.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"643 - 662"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41758440","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-22DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2023.2169038
Helena Wu
{"title":"A catalog of such stuff as dreams are made on","authors":"Helena Wu","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2023.2169038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2023.2169038","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47652676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-19DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2023.2169030
Chao Guo, Qingyue Wu
{"title":"Chinese theatre: an illustrated history through Nuoxi and Mulianxi","authors":"Chao Guo, Qingyue Wu","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2023.2169030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2023.2169030","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46659517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-18DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2022.2154747
Shuk Man Leung
ABSTRACT Studies on Chinese nationalist discourse in the late Qing era rarely consider the role of settler-colonialism in the development of nationalism, instead assuming that anti-colonialism was the dominant ideological source. This article transcends the traditional binary discourse of the colonised and the coloniser by exploring how settler-colonialism helped to project a borderless China in late Qing utopian fiction. I argue that this body of literature, as exemplified by Lü Sheng’s A Madman’s Dream, is a useful lens for exploring how Chinese settler-colonialism developed a (trans)national imagination. China, as a non-Western settler-colonist, had a dual identity: its experience of being colonised by the West resulted in its acting as a settler-colonist, while its efforts to promote a ‘new China’ overseas were intended to create solidarity with others who had suffered from colonisation. This article thus contributes to the growing body of scholarship about Qing expansionism as an instance of colonialism by demonstrating the internal tensions within Chinese discourse on colonialism in that era. I illustrate that Chinese settler-colonialism displayed a unique blend of discourse about expansion in the past, the experience of suffering in the present, and imagining the future.
{"title":"Chinese Settler-Colonialism and the Borderless National Imagination in Lü Sheng’s A Madman’s Dream","authors":"Shuk Man Leung","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2022.2154747","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2022.2154747","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Studies on Chinese nationalist discourse in the late Qing era rarely consider the role of settler-colonialism in the development of nationalism, instead assuming that anti-colonialism was the dominant ideological source. This article transcends the traditional binary discourse of the colonised and the coloniser by exploring how settler-colonialism helped to project a borderless China in late Qing utopian fiction. I argue that this body of literature, as exemplified by Lü Sheng’s A Madman’s Dream, is a useful lens for exploring how Chinese settler-colonialism developed a (trans)national imagination. China, as a non-Western settler-colonist, had a dual identity: its experience of being colonised by the West resulted in its acting as a settler-colonist, while its efforts to promote a ‘new China’ overseas were intended to create solidarity with others who had suffered from colonisation. This article thus contributes to the growing body of scholarship about Qing expansionism as an instance of colonialism by demonstrating the internal tensions within Chinese discourse on colonialism in that era. I illustrate that Chinese settler-colonialism displayed a unique blend of discourse about expansion in the past, the experience of suffering in the present, and imagining the future.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"500 - 517"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45274620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-18DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2022.2158454
Kihyun Lee, Jae Jeok Park
ABSTRACT In recent years China has forged an increasing number of strategic partnerships with other countries while maintaining its ‘non-alignment policy’. However, these partnerships are mainly bilateral rather than minilateral, and they thus have less potential to influence the Indo–Pacific regional order. This article examines how China has responded to the US-led security network, in which minilateralism features prominently, and argues that China has implemented a coercion strategy against India and Australia, who are two of the main regional hubs for minilateral security cooperation within that network. It also illustrates how China began to articulate the concept of ‘natural alliance forces’ (tianran tongmeng jun) in 2018, and that Beijing has subsequently expanded its own minilateral security cooperation and Chinese-style multilateralism. These initiatives share some of the characteristics of minilateralism and are seen by China as alternatives to non-alignment, even though they are not necessarily direct responses or reactions to US-led minilateral security cooperation. Instead, they indicate that China hopes to exert some influence on the regional order through the alignment of like-minded countries vis-à-vis the US-led network. The article concludes by identifying the limitations China faces in leading both minilateral and multilateral security cooperation.
{"title":"China’s Responses to the US-Led Security Network: Coercion and Alternatives to ‘Non-Alignment’","authors":"Kihyun Lee, Jae Jeok Park","doi":"10.1080/10357823.2022.2158454","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2022.2158454","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In recent years China has forged an increasing number of strategic partnerships with other countries while maintaining its ‘non-alignment policy’. However, these partnerships are mainly bilateral rather than minilateral, and they thus have less potential to influence the Indo–Pacific regional order. This article examines how China has responded to the US-led security network, in which minilateralism features prominently, and argues that China has implemented a coercion strategy against India and Australia, who are two of the main regional hubs for minilateral security cooperation within that network. It also illustrates how China began to articulate the concept of ‘natural alliance forces’ (tianran tongmeng jun) in 2018, and that Beijing has subsequently expanded its own minilateral security cooperation and Chinese-style multilateralism. These initiatives share some of the characteristics of minilateralism and are seen by China as alternatives to non-alignment, even though they are not necessarily direct responses or reactions to US-led minilateral security cooperation. Instead, they indicate that China hopes to exert some influence on the regional order through the alignment of like-minded countries vis-à-vis the US-led network. The article concludes by identifying the limitations China faces in leading both minilateral and multilateral security cooperation.","PeriodicalId":46499,"journal":{"name":"Asian Studies Review","volume":"47 1","pages":"778 - 798"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46966257","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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