The March issue of Pacific Affairs is a special issue entitled “Opening the Black Box of Migration” and consists of an introduction and 6 articles examining migration from different perspectives in Asia.

The introduction argues that an ethnographic focus on brokers illuminates the broader infrastructure that makes mobility possible while revealing that distinctions between state and market, between formal and information, and between altruistic and profit-oriented networks are impossible to sustain in practice.

The article, “How the Box Became Black: Brokers and the Creation of the Free Migrant” discusses gradual marginalization and demonization of brokers over the past three centuries, and how negative depictions of brokers created in the nineteenth century continue to shape understandings of contemporary mobility.

The third article, “Predatory Princes and Princely Peddlers: The State and International Labour Migration Intermediaries in China” examines how labour mobility from China is governed internally through intricate relations between state and private recruiters.

Along with offering a description of brokering practices, the article, “The Elementary School Teacher, The Thug, and His Grandmother: Informal Brokers and Transnational Migration from Indonesia”, argues that the dual process of centralization of migration control and fragmentation of labour recruitment has created a space for mediation for individuals who can navigate bureaucratic process while embodying the ethical qualities that convince Indonesian villagers to become migrants.

In “From Client to Matchmaker: Social Capital in the Making of Commercial Matchmaking Agents in Malaysia” the story of one Vietnamese bride is presented in greater depth to illustrate the sociability and social capital accumulation process as she works to transform herself into a marriage broker, increasing her own autonomy and access to resources in the process.

The sixth article is titled, “Safe Migration, Dilettante Brokers and the Appropriation of Legality: Lao-Thai “Trafficking” in the Context of Regulating Labour Migration”. This paper explores ‘safe migration’ as an emerging policy model in the context of anti-trafficking measures along the Lao-Thai border.

In the final article, “Organizing Student Mobility: Education Agents and Student Migration to New Zealand” the role of education agents in the mobility of international students with a particular emphasis on flows between South Korea and New Zealand is examined.

For additional details we invite you to visit our Current Issue Page.

Mission Statement

Pacific Affairs is an interdisciplinary journal committed to advancing empirical and conceptual knowledge in the field of Asia Pacific-focused area studies. We view area studies as combining serious commitment to original research on specific regions and countries in Asia and the Pacific with insights and analytical rigour derived from multiple disciplines and various theoretical perspectives.

2010 Journal Citation Report Impact Factor

Impact Factor 0.561 (20/60 Area Studies) – cites in 2010 to articles published in 2008 and 2009.

5-Year Impact Factor 0.567 (19/60 Area Studies) – cites in 2010 to articles published from 2005 to 2009

Immediacy Index 0.316 (7 out of 60 Area Studies journals) – cites in 2010 of articles published in 2010

© 2011 Thomson Reuters, Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Journal Citation Reports

Note: We maintain a sustained and in-depth intellectual and administrative interest in the various debates concerning the uses, meanings, and limits of bibliometric indexes such as the annual JCR reports. We list the information above not as an unthinking endorsement of the use of these indexes to define notions of “quality,” but as information that forms part of a larger set of ongoing attempts to map the patterns and understand the meanings of scholarly communications in the digital age. The view of Pacific Affairs is that the 5-Year Impact Factor (regardless of our absolute and relative numbers) is the most significant measure, given that we aspire to publish articles that based on the depth of empirical research and the clarity of the arguments will ideally retain their relevance for at least five years after their publication.

About Us

Pacific Affairs is a peer-reviewed, independent, and interdisciplinary scholarly journal focussing on important current political, economic and social issues throughout Asia and the Pacific. Each issue contains approximately five new articles and 35-40 book reviews. Published continuously since 1928 under the same name, Pacific Affairs has been located on the beautiful campus of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, since 1961. The journal is committed to providing to the scholarly community and the world at large high quality research on Asia and the Pacific that takes readers beyond the headlines and across multiple disciplines.

Indexing

Pacific Affairs is indexed in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Social Sciences Index, Humanities Index, Humanities International Index, Public Affairs Information Service and PAIS ARCHIVE, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, World Affairs Online and Bibliography of Asian Studies. We are both indexed and have abstracts of articles appear in Web of Science, GEOBASE, Canadian Periodical Index, Academic Search Complete, CBCA Complete, Sociological Abstracts, Historical Abstracts, International Political Science Abstracts, America: History and Life, Public Administration and CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Ingenta is the electronic provider for our online subscriptions. Pacific Affairs was distinguished to be one of the first journals to be invited by JSTOR to be represented in their archives at its inception.