MPI-MMG in Dialogue "Migration, Retention & Incorporation of the Highly Skilled"

Stream Link: https://youtube.com/live/o2TzjQsiEYg

This event will bring together experts on highly skilled migration in major migrant receiving countries in (South) East Asia as well as Germany to explore and compare the challenges of retaining, rather than simply recruiting, highly skilled migrants in ageing societies. Set against the backdrop of ongoing socio-cultural diversification, it will also focus on the tensions emerging between the different stakeholders in this process, including the receiving society, policy makers, firms, and the migrants themselves. Panelists will discuss the social implications of receiving and retaining highly skilled migrants, going beyond just labor market concerns. They will also challenge the perception of highly skilled migrants as either short-term stayers or individuals who integrate seamlessly. This In-Dialogue marks the culmination of the QuaMaFA Project, that examined the role of skills in labour migration in major migrant-receiving economies in (South)East Asia.

Speakers:

• Chang Won Lee (Migration Research and Training Centre, South Korea)
• Gracia Liu-Farrer (Waseda University, Japan)
• Anja Weiss (University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany)
• Junjia Ye (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Moderator:

• Helena Hof (MPI-MMG / University of Zurich)

Please ⧉ click here to download the poster.

Chang Won Lee - Migration Research and Training Centre, South Korea

Chang Won LEE is a Research Fellow at the Migration Research and Training Centre (MRTC), a government-funded institute dedicated to immigration policy research. He completed his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Maryland, where his dissertation used Korean migration to the United States as a case study to reveal how global perspectives can reshape traditional views of stratification and social mobility often constrained by nation-based frameworks. His areas of expertise include labor migration, skilled migration, immigration policy, and the Korean diaspora. Since joining MRTC in 2013, he has led numerous projects, including recent studies on Korea’s population decline and its impact on immigration policy, foreign researchers in Korea, employment pathways for STEM international students, immigration policy and human capital citizenship, and social mobility among Korean immigrants in Australia. Currently, he is focused on the evolving policies and landscape of international students in Korea.

Gracia Liu-Farrer - Waseda University, Japan

Gracia Liu-Farrer is Professor of sociology at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, and Director of Institute of Asian Migration at Waseda University, Japan. Her research examines immigration into Japan, transnational labor and student mobilities in East Asia as well as between Asia and Europe. She hopes to bring Asian experiences to migration and mobility theorization. Her recent books include Handbook of Asian Migrations (with Brenda Yeoh, Routledge, 2018), Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society (Cornell University Press, 2020), Tangled Mobilities: Places, Affects, and Personhood across Social Spheres in Asian Migration (with Asuncion Fresnoza-Flot, Berghahn Books, 2022), and The Question of Skill in Cross-border Labour Mobilities (with Brenda Yeoh and Michele Baas, Taylor & Francis, 2023). She has published journal articles and book chapters on migrants ranging from Chinese students, Nepali restaurant workers to Syrian refugees.

Anja Weiß - University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany

Anja Weiß is professor for macrosociology and transnational processes at the Institute for Sociology at the University of Duisburg-Essen. Her theoretical interests in global and transnational inequalities translate into comparative empirical studies on highly skilled migrants, the glocalization of professional knowledge, (institutional) racism and legal exclusion, anti-racism, and transnational qualitative research design. Her major publications include a study on high skilled migrants’ trajectories into labor markets in Germany, Turkey and Canada (with Nohl, Schittenhelm and Schmidtke: Work in Transition, Toronto UP 2014). She serves on the board of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Integration and Migration at University of Duisburg-Essen.

Junjia Ye - Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Junjia Ye is Associate Professor in Geography at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Her research and teaching interests lie at the intersections of migration studies, urban diversification, and the political-economic development of Southeast Asia. Her current project investigates how migrant creative labour is made precarious through the skill optic. Her work has been published in Progress in Human Geography, Antipode, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Annals of the American Association of Geographers and Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. Her first monograph, Class inequality in the global city: migrants, workers and cosmopolitanism in Singapore (2016, Palgrave Macmillan) won Labour History’s annual book prize.

For more details please contact kofri(at)mmg.mpg.de.