Labor Migration and the Philippine Labor Market

Abstract

Based on recorded data, the Philippines has experienced the largest outflow in Asia of both permanent emigrants and migrant labor over the last three to four decades. The number working and living abroad has reached almost 8% of the population and the yearly outflow of workers bound for an increasingly varied destinations and occupations is about 14% of the labor force. The paper discusses the rising scale and changing structure of migrants and explains these by three interacting factors that make for labor market flexibilityan extensive market-based educational system, active employment service industry and migration's own backward and forward linkages. Further discussed are the economic implications of the migration and some rigidity in the education market that tends to pull down returns to migration.     

European‐Chinese relations in the Nineties

In recent decades, there have been many international campaigns on numerous issues. In turn, scholars have analysed the activist networks promoting human rights, environmental quality and global justice, developing theories of transnational advocacy, strategies and outcomes. However, analysts have seldom noted that the ‘progressive’ networks on which these theories have been based seldom act unopposed. Instead, on numerous global issues leftwing groups face fierce opposition from networks of rightwing activists. This article provides examples of such clashes, focusing on these understudied conservative networks. In addition, it outlines a theory for understanding the conflict of networks over many policy issues.     

National democratization theory and global governance: civil society and the liberalization of the Asian Development Bank

Contributing to a growing literature on democracy beyond the nation-state, this article draws on aspects of national democratization theory in order to analyse empirical processes of democracy. By combining insights from transition theory and the theory of political opportunity structures, the article examines the case of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). While the ADB for a long time has been described as a closed, unresponsive and unaccountable international organization, a recent evaluation praised the Bank for its good practices concerning transparency, participation and accountability. The article uses the analytical framework to highlight the interaction between hard-liners and soft-liners within the ADB and explores the role of different transnational civil society actors in the processes that seem to have strengthened the democratic credentials of the ADB. While finding significant divisions within the ADB as well as amongst civil society actors targeting the bank, overall the article argues that transnational civil society actors, interacting with soft-liners within the ADB, have contributed to the implementation of reforms, which in turn create political opportunities for further civil society activism. The reform processes, however, are best described as processes of liberalization – rather than democratization.     

华人有组织犯罪

本文对作者进行的多项实证研究进行梳理,通过研究在亚洲和美国的犯罪组织与犯罪网络的历史、结构和犯罪活动,对华人传统的有组织犯罪团伙和新型犯罪网络进行了概览。此外,本文还对这些华人有组织犯罪团伙和其他种族的犯罪团伙及其民间和政府组织之间的关系进行了研究,还探讨了控制华人有组织犯罪的问题和前景。最后,本文探讨了华人有组织犯罪的前景,特别是华人参与跨国犯罪的新生代力量。本文认为并不存在总部设在亚洲某处的、垄断性的、世界性的一个华人黑手党。     

Transnational and local entanglements in the ‘cycle of violence’ of Central American migration

ABSTRACT

Violence in Central America has become one of the reasons for leaving the region. Recent scholarship tends to understand violence within local and regional processes, while neglecting the larger transnational processes. Focusing on the case of Hondurans seeking asylum in the United States, this article argues that the phenomenon of violence that has forced Hondurans to leave is a result of a combination of local and transnational processes. Conceptually, this article draws on the notion of the ‘cycle of violence’ to understand the different forms of violence that forcibly displaces Central Americans. The notion has been used to understand how early exposure to violence is linked to future violent behaviour. However, it is limited to local processes. This article expands this notion by considering transnational factors, such as migration and the global agenda of crime control, in the contribution to the reproduction of the ‘cycle of violence’ of Central Americans.     

Global norms in domestic politics: environmental norm contestation in Cambodia's hydropower sector

Policymakers in many developing Asian countries have commonly relied on investment incentives as a major policy instrument to attract foreign investment. Using comparative case studies of Asian transnational corporations (TNCs) in Southeast Asia, this paper argues that investment incentives per se are ineffective in attracting foreign investment. The paper first examines the role of government incentives in the inflow of foreign investment, with particular reference to the Southeast Asian region. It then provides a comparative study of Hong Kong and Taiwanese investments. Hong Kong TNCs are shown to have invested in Southeast Asia because of market or market‐related reasons, not investment incentives per se. To these firms from Hong Kong, investment incentives are more a kind of post hoc rationalization of their decision making. For the Taiwanese investors in Malaysia, government incentives are less important than the existence of market access and the friendly host country environment. The paper also suggests some implications and specific policy recommendations for policymakers in host country governments. Instead of over‐reliance on investment incentives, host country governments should be more concerned with: 1) a commitment to internationalization through the promotion and marketing of international images; 2) the upgrading of domestic resources through continuous training and development; 3) a more efficient allocation of resources; 4) supra‐national coordination and promotion.     

‘But this is a park’! The paradox of public space in a Buenos Aires ‘no man's land’

Drawing upon qualitative fieldwork, this paper analyzes the occupation of an abandoned park in the south of Buenos Aires by the city's urban poor, delineating the implications of this incident for notions of citizenship in the context of deeply fragmented social rights. While public space has historically been understood as an expression of the universality of rights bearing membership in a political community, I show how this universalism became the object of struggle during a conflict over the park between the local middle class and squatters, many of which were of immigrant origin. The discourses mobilized by various social groups blurred the distinction between citizenship as a set of legal–formal rights versus a project of normative inclusion. While public space is juridically constructed as universal, particularistic claims to these spaces are imbued with increased legitimacy in a context in which social rights – conceived as a set of provisions guaranteed by the state under a regime of liberal citizenship – are unrealizable. By claiming this space for particularistic uses, squatters drew attention to the contradictions embedded in public space's democratic pretensions in a setting in which putatively universal rights are ignored by the state.     

改革开放与跨国（地区）投资历程考察

改革开放30余年,中国从封闭半封闭状态走向对外开放。改革开放前,中外经济关系主要是对外贸易与对外经济合作。改革开放以来的巨大变化突出体现为跨国（地区）直接投资,主要包括“引进来”与“走出去”。始于改革开放初期的“引进来”,发展到“引进来”与“走出去”并行;21世纪初,随着中国加入WTO和政策法规体系逐渐完备,中外之间的跨国（地区）投资进入新的阶段。     

中国东盟打击跨国犯罪刑事合作机制探析

中国东盟打击跨国犯罪刑事合作是双边政治、经贸发展的需要;已经建立的双边协商机制和法律合作机制是开展打击跨国犯罪的基础。中国和东盟国家已经签署的引渡条约在政治犯罪不引渡、本国国民不引渡等问题规定落后双边打击犯罪现实,亟需改进;中国和东盟国家司法协助形式较单一,需要增加。对于尚未与中国签署引渡条约的国家,由于不能根据国际公约开展引渡合作,只能开创新的合作思路。未来中国东盟打击跨国犯罪刑事合作应当向着建立区域机构、区域统一逮捕令、强化人员培训技术合作以及网络信息建设方向发展。     

略论多边刑事条约的概念、特征和种类

基于有关国际法律文件之规定和专家学者的观点并主要根据自己的理解对多边刑事条约的概念、特征和种类进行了界定、概括和划分。