Global Asian City

Global Asian City provides a unique theoretical framework for studying the growth of cities and migration focused on the notion of desire as a major driver of international migration to Asian cities. Draws on more than 120 interviews of emigrants to Seoul—including migrant workers from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, English teachers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, UK and USA, and international students at two elite Korean universities Features a comparative account of different migrant populations and the ways in which national migration systems and urban processes create differences between these groups Focuses on the causes of international migrant to Seoul, South Korea, and reveals how migration has transformed the city and nation, especially in the last two decades

Series Editor’s Preface vi Acknowledgements vii 1 Introduction 1 2 Desire, Assemblage and Encounter: Beyond Regimes of Migration Management 24 3 Migration Regimes, Migrant Biographies and Discrepancy 47 4 Migration, the Urban Periphery and the Politics of Migrant Lives 71 5 Channelling Desire and Diversity 101 6 Negotiating Privilege and Precarity in Suburban Seoul 128 7 Multicultural Presence and Fractured Futures 153 8 Conclusion 181 References 194 Index 209