Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

Book excerpt: This book explores the experiences of temporary migrants in the Asia-Pacific region. It develops the original concept of 'fluid security' to analyse the way in which persons carry a set of tools, strategies and attitudes across spatial, temporal and imagined borders. This concept applies a mobilities lens to human security in order to take into account the aspirations and needs of mobile populations appropriate for a globalising world. The book brings to light the diverse experiences of mobility and the multiple vulnerabilities experienced by individuals that intersect with, and sometimes challenge, national security domains. The authors analyse mobility patterns that are diversifying at a rate far outstripping the capacity of governments to adapt to the human security needs of mobile populations. While the idea of global citizenship may be held up as an ideal through which access to rights is not an arbitrary lottery, it remains far from a reality for the majority of migrants. They are excluded from the migratory flows global elites engage in almost at will. This important book advances the idea that mobile individuals can generate their own security when they have agency and the ability to plan; that experiences of security are not necessarily tied to permanence; that mobile populations benefit from policies that support transnational life; and that fluid security is enhanced when individuals are able to carry a bundle of rights with them.