Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
region with recognized environmental amenities. The population geography
of East Asian transnational migrants repeats these familiar phases of mid-
dle-class life cycle mobility, but with the significant variation that the game
is played on a much more expansive spatial canvas. Their circulation between
metropolis and hinterland crosses national borders, defining regions of
opportunity at different life cycle stages within a transnational social field.
These movements are flexible and open to review and amendment. Some
are temporary by intent from the beginning; others are a response to chang-
ing circumstances. The shift from geographical embeddedness to mobility,
from roots to routes, highlights the differences in resources across the
regions of the social field, selectively activated to coincide with distinctive
family status passages. The regions of the social field are diverse not uni-
form, and it is precisely their diversity that establishes the ties that bind its
parts into a unity defined by mobility.
