Globalisation and social transformation theorists have paid significantly less attention to the movement of people than they have to the movement of capital. This book redresses the balance and provides timely insights into recent developments in return skilled migration in four regions in the Asia Pacific - Bangladesh, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. The authors believe that the movement of skilled migrants, and the tacit knowledge they bring with them, is a vital component in the process of globalisation. The authors examine the patterns and processes of return migration and the impacts it can have on migrants, their families and communities (including gender relations), as well as the effects on both the original source country and the host country. They highlight the many considerations which can influence the decision to return home, including social factors, career-related prospects, and the economic and political environment. Government policies in facilitating return migration through the promotion of entrepreneurship, education and training can also play a crucial role. In the long term, fears of a 'brain drain', under certain circumstances, may be replaced by the prospect of a 'brain gain' or 'global brain circulation', where emigration and immigration (or return migration) co-exist and are supplemented by short-term circulatory movements as a country becomes more integrated into the global economy. This is a pioneering comparative study of return migration in the Asia Pacific based on original primary data. Researchers, academics and students interested in migration, globalisation, demography and social transformation will find this a valuable and highly rewarding book.

Hariti is the ancient Indian goddess of childbirth and women healers, known at one time throughout South and Southeast Asia from India to Nepal and Bali. Daughters of Hariti looks at her 'daughters' today, female midwives and healers in many different cultures across the region. It also traces the transformation of childbirth in these cultures under the impact of Western biomedical technology, national and international health policies and the wider factors of social and economic change. The authors ask what can be done to improve the high rates of maternal and infant deaths and illnesses still associated with childbirth in most societies in this area and whether the wholesale replacement of indigenous knowledge by Western biomedical technology is necessarily a good thing.

Contents:
List of illustrations. Introduction. 1. The Daughters of Hariti Today Geoffrey Samuel Part 1: South Asia. 2. "We Know How to Do These Things": Birth in a Newar Village 3. Knowing All the Gods: Grandmothers, God Families, and Women Healers in Nepal Linda Iltis 4. Contaminating States: Midwifery, Childbearing and the State in Rural North India Patricia Jeffrey, Roger Jeffrey and Andrew Lyon 5. Midwives and Other Women; Agency, Emotions and the Politics of Healing in Rajasthan, North West India Maya Unnithan-Kumar 6. The Healer on the Margins: The Dai in Rural Bangladesh Santi Rozario 7. Hawa, Gola and Mother-in-Law's Big Toe: On Understanding Dais' Imagery of the Female Body Janet Chawlan 8. "Baby-Friendly" Hospitals and Bad Mothers: Maneuvring Development in the Post-Partum Period in Tamilnadu, South India Cecilia Van Hollen 9. Tibetan and Indian Ideas of Birth Pollution: Similarities and Contrasts Santi Rozario and Geoffrey Samuel Part 2: Southeast Asia. 10. Birth Attendants in Northeast Thailand: Embodying Tradition in Modern Times Andrea Whitaker 11. Childbirth and Traditional Healing in an Iban Longhouse Amanda Harris 12. Of Paraji and Bidan: Hierarchies of Knowledge among Sudanese Midwives Lynda Newland 13. Adat and Modernity: Confinement in a Sasak Government Clinic Cynthia Hunter Index. About the Editors and Contributors