Academic works, in all disciplines, have studied at length the legacy of immigrant outsiders' domination of Taiwan since the 17th century up to the democratization process in the 1990s. Since then, many scholars have paid attention to the island's ethnic cleavages distinguishing four major groups: the aboriginals, Hokklo (Hokkien speakers), Hakka and mainlanders (waishengren). This static picture has changed drastically since the early 1990s as a result of two major streams of migrants: guest workers and migrant women who married local Taiwanese men, this type of migration being more permanent in nature. The new immigrant groups are now larger than both aboriginals and first-generation mainlanders, and are gaining citizenship and thus voting rights.

Even if migration to and from the island over the past 20 years has already been studied – in Chinese as well as in Western languages – this book edited by Chiu Kuei-fen, Dafydd Fell and Lin Ping is one of the very first large-scale compilations to approach the topic in many of its features and from a range of disciplinary perspectives, including political science, international relations, sociology, political economy, gender studies, social work, film studies and education. In addition, the book provides accurate figures, tables and maps, while chapter two is devoted to the state of the field.

Out of the five chapters focusing on migration from Taiwan, one looks at early emigrants that moved to Canada and Guam in the 1960s and 1970s (chapter seven), while four look at emigration to China (chapters three to six). As for migration to Taiwan, six chapters (eight, and ten to 14) address marriage-migrant spouses and/or their children from a number of different perspectives, including the resistance to patriarchal Taiwanese social normalization, the academic and social lives of the children and their political socialization, and the mobilization of Chinese spouses and their Taiwanese families against discriminatory regulations. Certainly, the 15 chapters of the book do not cover all the issues at stake, such as the flows of students or the contract workers in the island's industry and care sector; yet, many of them are hinted at in the interviews conducted by the authors, including the part played by marriage brokers.

Though some chapters appear to be more innovative or useful according to each reader's own interest, the book is not flawed by any of them. First and foremost, anyone should read the book in full to understand the impact of migratory flows on contemporary Taiwan, especially their political dimensions. Indeed, all chapters focus on three central themes related to migration: identity, politics and belonging. Therefore, a number of questions cut across the chapters, such as the impact of non-economic factors on migration, the intricate interplay of class and gender, the power of narratives in shaping the migrant subjects' journeys and the researchers' agendas, or widespread hostility to immigrants in Taiwanese society.

One of the great merits of the book is to address on an equal footing cross-Strait and other migration flows. Yet, the many twists resulting from the unresolved sovereignty dispute between Beijing and Taipei, as well as the controversial issue of national identity show on the surface. I shall give just three examples. Because people from China in Taiwan are not subject to laws regulating foreign nationals or ROC citizens, mainland spouses are subject to discriminatory regulations. However, Tseng Yu-chin, Isabelle Cheng and Dafydd Fell show in chapter 14 that by appealing to human rights rather than traditional family values, the mainland spouse movement weakened the politicization of these spouses as agents of the subversive Chinese Communist regime; hence, it could “normalize” these spouses as ordinary migrants (pp. 217–18). Secondly, Indonesian-Chinese women migrating to Taiwan have imagined the island as “a place for Chinese, of Chinese and by Chinese,” whereas the host society has gone through a trade-off between Taiwanese and Chinese identity, as explained by Isabelle Cheng in chapter ten. Thirdly, Dafydd Fell shows how, despite growing levels of migration, it has yet to become the divisive political issue in Taiwan that it has in many European countries, which actually have lower proportions of migrant populations. It is the prospect of uncontrolled Chinese labour migration, rather than marriage migrants transforming Taiwan's ethnic structure, that has aroused the most attention (chapter nine).

Many other examples could be given. Indeed, the last chapter by Tony Fielding “Taiwan's (extra)ordinary migrations” points to the uniqueness of Taiwanese migration; but it also suggests that it presents significant scope for comparative studies, such as the feminization of migration flows or the tragic situations generated by “co-ethnic” migration.