Last Updated on March 28, 2022 by themigrationnews
The book ‘Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia‘ is written by Sunil Amrith and comprises five chapters. Historian Sunil Amrith has demonstrated various migration patterns across South and Southeast Asia. He attempted to articulate how migration has shaped history and the narratives and how human mobility has played a significant role in allowing ideas of nationhood and nationality to spread across Asia. This book encompasses 150 years of history of the people on the move. This book also raises questions on the freedom of migrants, cultural consequences of mass migration, and the process of formation of multiple Asian diasporas. The author discusses changing regulation and governance of migration over time and notes that migration history provides a tool for thinking about Asia in new ways.
Amrith has broadly discussed and delineated the various mobility patterns from the densely populated regions of South Asia. Amrith tries to highlight the nineteenth century as a period of the mobility revolution in Asia through this book. Amrith also periodises migration history, which he has categorised into four phases starting with the first phase from 1850 to 1930, the peak of Asian migration. The second phase is marked from the year 1930 till World War Two, which witnessed the disintegration of the system of inter-regional migration that had developed in the 1850s. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s, categorised as the third phase, witnessed the emergence of new nation-states in Asia. This era saw a reduced level of international migration. The fourth phase started in the early 1970s with further internal and international migration expansion with restrictions that became widespread because of rising new destinations across the world, the oil boom in gulf countries, and urban revolution across the South Asian nations that attracted migrants.
Chapter one, ‘Asia’s Great Migrations, 1850-1930’, focuses on the significant flows of migration across Asia between 1850 to 1930. The author talks about the movement of thirty million people from India to present-day Sri Lanka, Burma, and Malaysia. Amrith also highlights the mass movement of about 19 million people from China to Southeast Asia and more than 30 million people from northern China to Manchuria. With the advent of regular steamer services across the China Sea and the Bay of Bengal, migration flow soared in the 1870s. Amrith further discusses the pre-colonial movement of people across the port cities as captives and slaves followed by European expansion, which stimulated Asian mobility. The key component of this chapter is the argument that explains how this can be called a mobility revolution. Amrith has explained the argument explicitly by remarking on the societal transformations, the industrial revolution, transport, and communication. By the 1870s, another way of transformation was plantation-based production of commodities for export which was well established on Asia’s frontiers. All these transformations facilitated the mobility revolution.
In the second chapter, ‘The Making of Asian Diasporas, 1850- 1930’, the author emphasises the formation of the Asian diaspora within Asia. The author interprets the narration about diasporas by keeping in mind the relative proximity between homelands and destinations and the dominance of sojourning circular migration[1].This chapter also shows that Asians who moved between 1870 to 1930 took with them not only their skills, capital or labour power, but also ideas, cultural practices, sacred symbols, and ways of life. Amrith further states that mobility has brought a sense of difference in culture, even national distinction among the migrant community.
In the third chapter, ‘War, Revolution, and Refugees, (1930-1950)‘, the author mentions three successive transformations which made millions of Asians move to other places. The first transformation was a global economic crisis. The second transformation was the reversal of migrant flows coincided with the war, which displaced tens of millions of Asians and the third transformation was a direct consequence of warfare. This was the period when migration had become the centre of all discussions regarding the cementing of the new borders. He further extends his argument by putting other causes into discourse like the great economic depression of the 1930s and disconnection, repatriations, and new imperial laws that restricted labor migration. Further, the author elaborates on the violence against migrants and minorities, war refugees in Southeast Asia, forced labours in the wartime Japanese empire, etc.
In chapter four, ‘Migration, Development and the Asian city,’ the author discusses the impacts of mass movements of Asians in post-war years. He has explicitly examined the effects after the formation of new national borders, which led millions of people to migrate to the other side and its close association with the development and urbanisation in newly born South Asian States like India; China; Pakistan; Sri Lanka; Burma; Philippines Indonesia and Vietnam. This new transformation of settlement and mass migration has created complex issues on citizenship. This phenomenon often referred to as ‘orphans of the empire[2]’is the key revelation of this book based on the most recent research and publications in the relevant areas.
Chapter five, ‘Asian Migrants in the Age of Globalisation,‘ is dedicated to Asian migration since the 1970s, the age of globalisation. This chapter identifies the contemporary “mobility revolution”[3] (p 4) that has pervaded Asia since the 1970s. This chapter discusses several significant trends and themes such as the dimensions and ramifications of Asian urbanisation in the wake of contemporary globalisation; export of skilled labour and professionals to countries within and beyond Asia, the feminisation of Asian migration (p 205) as well as refugee movement.
Overall, this book is remarkable in terms of precise demonstration of the subject and justification of arguments. Consequently, the book has opened up potentially fruitful vistas for further multidisciplinary research and systematic study on the interconnectedness between migration, society, economy, culture, and politics. The author further points out the gap and methodologies for the scholars of South and Southeast Asian history. This book is a major contribution to the field of migration and diaspora in South Asia. Author Sunil Amrith’s engaging and deeply informative book crosses the vast terrain from the Middle East to India and China, touching the core aspects of state formation in Modern Asia, the drawing of imperial and national borders; development of new ideas about citizenship; states’ increasing concern with knowing and acting upon their populations. Through this book, Amrith has put his suggestions and regards for further studies in the field of migration and diaspora in Asian history. It would be beneficial for scholars who intend advance their studies in this domain.
[1] J. Schneider and B. Parusel (2015) have defined circular migration as “A flexible form of repetitive movement between different destinations”.
[2] .Robert Cribb and Li Narangoa, ‘Orphans of Empire: Divided Peoples, Dilemmas of Identity, and Old Imperial Borders in East and Southeast Asia’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 46, 1 (2004): 164-187.
[3] Sunil Amrith has marked the period from 1870s to 1930s as Mobility Revolution’.
Atul Kumar Gupta is a PhD scholar from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He has been awarded Junior Research Fellowship by University Grants Commission, India. His areas of interest include – History of Migration and Diaspora in various countries, South Asian migration, Study of displacement and Forced migration, Indenture system, Maistry System in Burma, and Contemporary Indian History.