Cross-border human migration within northeast Asia is a growing phenomenon that is creating national security concerns, diplomatic problems, national migration policy dilemmas, and social tension as well as cultural frictions at the local level for the national governments concerned, host communities, and the border-crossing individuals.

To explore these issues, on June 24, 2004 the United States Institute of Peace and the Migration Policy Institute cohosted a discussion on "Cross-Border Human Flows in Northeast Asia." Moderated by Taylor Seybolt, a grant program officer at the U.S. Institute of Peace, presenters introduced the major conclusions reached by researchers from China, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, South Korea, and the United States on population trends and migration patterns in the region. Case studies of Chinese and Koreans in the Russian Far East; North Koreans in China; Chinese, Koreans, and Russians in Japan; and immigration and emigration issues in Mongolia and South Korea were examined. The case studies were followed by a discussion of policy implications and recommendations for the nations of Northeast Asia and the United States.

Speakers

• Tsuneo Akaha
  Monterey Institute of International Studies; and U.S. Institute of Peace Grantee
• Robert Scalapino
  University of California, Berkeley
• Hazel Smith
  United Nations University, Tokyo; and former U.S. Institute of Peace Senior Fellow
• Demetri Papademetriou
  Migration Policy Institute, Discussant
• Taylor B. Seybolt
  Grant Program, U.S. Institute of Peace, Moderator