This book examines the social and political dimensions of migration from a perspective between the realms of demography and politics. It approaches the issue of migration by highlighting the important power relations that have previously been neglected in studies in the area. The book starts by investigating Indonesian migration to provide an understanding of internal migration. It then looks beyond its national borders for a wider understanding of Asia, and showcases several case studies both in Indonesia and beyond to illustrate the intricate politics of migration. Further, it considers the politics of migration from the sending country perspective and unravels the link between migration and security. The book provides reviews of the wider literature relating to population mobility and distribution, and shows readers how to adopt a new perspective in the study of movement of people -an issue that is becoming increasingly important as movement of people unfolds globally in terms of both volume and direction. This book is a valuable resource for students, academics and researchers in the area of demography and social-politics, especially those interested in migration and refugees. It also offers insights for those interested in understanding decentralization in greater depth.

Tirtosudarmo obtained his PhD in social demography (1990) from the Research School of Social Sciences, the Australian National University. Since 1980, he has been working with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and became a senior researcher at the Research Center for Society and Culture. His research interests include migration, urbanization, political demography, ethnicity and territorial politics. Since 2000, he has focused on the social transformation in Java's north coast cities, the politics of cultural heritage and local adat communities in Java. He was also a Fulbright Visiting Fellow at the Department of Sociology, Brown University (1996-1997), Fellow-in-Residence at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in Humanities and Social Sciences (NIAS, 2000-2001), Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Refugee Studies Center, Oxford University (Michaelmas Term, 2002), Visiting Professor at the Research Institute of Language and Culture, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2003-2004), Visiting Researcher at KITLV, Leiden (March-April 2008) and Visiting Senior Research Fellow at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (July-September 2008). Tirtosudarmo has been publishing extensively in scientific journals on political demography and the politics of population mobility in Indonesia and Southeast Asia. He has also published several books and is an international editorial board member of various journals.