[KS] [CFP] Recalibrating ‘Skill’ in Changing Immigration Regimes: Skilled Migrants and the Nature of Work in Asia

Wed Sep 4 02:19:53 EDT 2024

*[CFP] Recalibrating ‘Skill’ in Changing Immigration Regimes: Skilled
Migrants and the Nature of Work in Asia*

The meaning of ‘skilled’ or ‘white-collar’ work, that is, work that
requires a certain set of expertise and educational credentials, has
changed in the last decade. In tandem, so has the meaning attached to
‘skilled migration’, namely, knowledge-intensive work carried out by
professionals outside of their home countries. After a peak in global human
mobility in the 2010s due to a proliferation of budget airlines and a surge
in bilateral and multilateral agreements that cover and ease international
labour mobility (Sheller and Urry 2006), the late 2010s brought about
unprecedented changes. Digitalization is the most prominent to name,
facilitating international business and the communication of globally
dispersed teams. Other developments include first the rise, and then the
fall, of coding professions, which used to represent a highly-demanded
skill that triggered large migration flows from countries where IT skills
were trained but which have most recently shifted to become skills at risk
of being replaced by artificial intelligence.

Overall, structural shifts rooted in changing migration policies, the ‘tech
wreck’ laying off IT personnel around the world, and global events such as
the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to reconfiguring skilled labour
mobility. While some skilled workers were suddenly able to work remotely
from home (or even anywhere they prefer), others had to remain in areas of
rising geopolitical tensions or risk of infection, denied the freedom to
move or work from safe spaces (Zhang and Wang 2023). These countervailing
developments, added to labour shortages and demographic change resulting
from rapid ageing, brought to light which skills are ‘essential’ and in
short supply, which can be outsourced to other countries, and which to
machines (Horii and Sakurai 2020). These shifts in work styles and labour
market demands have raised the question who can be accorded the label
‘skilled workers’ and who can (soon) be denied of it.

In this light, this workshop examines the changing working environment
skilled migrants encounter in contemporary Asia. The continent is the
largest producer of varied ‘skilled’ professions such as IT and nursing,
with intraregional migration flows almost doubling between 1990 and 2020
(IOM 2024). At the same time, Asia is also known for less liberal migration
regimes than those in Western countries (Boucher and Gest 2018). Given
labour shortages at almost all skill levels in most industrialized Asian
economies, the region provides an important context to observe new meanings
of ‘skill’, changing attitudes towards skilled immigrants, and resulting
reconfigurations of immigration policy. While foregrounding the sphere of
work, we acknowledge that even within skilled migrants’ spatial and life
trajectories, ‘work’ is not only a means to secure a visa and to earn
financial income, but also a way to pursue upward socio-economic mobility,
to build a life (and sometimes family) in the host society, and to attain
life satisfaction (Yeoh and Huang 2011). However, the extant scholarship
has yet to give full attention to the interplay between the redefinition of
skill, the changing nature of work skilled migrants encounter, and their
perception of and responses to the way this affects their social
positioning, life aspirations, and family dynamics. Subjective
interpretations of a ‘successful’ migration may neither depend on a career
in an occupation or industry that is labelled skilled; nor do migrants
necessarily perceive their social positioning in line with that stipulated
by visa categories and state policy (Boese et al. 2022).

As such, this workshop examines the intersections between the new
structural conditions that shape work and life in contemporary Asia and
skilled migrants’ subjectivities. On a conceptual level, it seeks to
clarify how changing ways of work and ensuing redefinitions of skills
affect skilled migrants’ self-positioning and family strategy in a
landscape of both tightening and emerging immigration regimes in Asia.
Potential workshop participants are encouraged to submit original research
papers that address the following areas of interest, which include but are
not limited to:

   - How have new working styles and changes in labour market demands
   recalibrated ‘skill’ categorisations? How do skilled migrants, including
   digital nomads and remote workers, experience changes and continuity in the
   way their skills are assessed, and how do they manoeuvre their resultant
   new positioning – including the impact on their legal status, family life,
   migration trajectories, and more – on a hierarchy of skills?
   - How do new and emerging narratives surrounding digital work and the
   use of AI influence migrants’ expectations and aspirations of long-term
   opportunities in the host society, self-actualization, and skill
   development?
   - To what extent do skilled migrants carve out professional careers and
   migratory trajectories deviating from state-determined ‘skill’
   trajectories, as their own qualifications, family roles and life stage no
   longer fit the (updated) ‘ideal’ path?
   - What kind of soft skills, creativity, or psychological capital are
   valued in the new world of work and facilitate the realization of migratory
   projects, allowing migrants to perceive themselves as having autonomy and
   competence over their lives?

SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS

Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (300 words maximum),
and a brief personal biography of 150 words for submission by *13 September
2024.* Abstracts should include as appropriate a discussion of the paper’s
main aim(s), conceptual framework/theoretical contribution, research
methods and data, and key findings. Please also include a statement
confirming that your paper has not been published or committed elsewhere,
and that you are willing to revise your paper for potential inclusion in a
journal special issue.

Please submit your proposal using the provided template
<https://ari.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CFP-Proposal-Form-Recalibrating-Skill.docx>
to
Ms Minghua Tay at aritm at nus.edu.sg. Successful applicants will be notified
by the end of September 2024. Panel presenters will be required to submit
drafts of papers (4,000-6,000 words) by 18 December 2024. These drafts will
be circulated to fellow panelists and discussants in advance. Drafts need
not be fully polished. Indeed, we expect that presenters will be open to
feedback from fellow participants.

WORKSHOP CONVENORS

Dr Helena HOF
Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, and
University of Zurich

Dr Aimi MURANAKA
University of Duisburg-Essen

Dr Ruth ACHENBACH
Goethe University Frankfurt

Dr Yang WANG
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Prof Brenda S. A. YEOH
Asia Research Institute & Department of Geography, National University of
Singapore
This workshop is organized by the Asia Research Institute, National
University of Singapore and the Qualification and Skill in the Migration
Process of Foreign Workers in Asia (QuaMaFA) project funded by the Federal
Ministry of Education and Research in Germany (BMBF).
-- 
Joohyun Justine Park, PhD
Research professor/Department of Multicultural Education/Institute for
Specialized Teaching and Research
University main building (Room 418), 100 Inha-ro, Michuhol-gu, Incheon,
Republic of Korea [22212]
Tel: +82-32-860-9542
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20240904/3c74ce4c/attachment.htm>