The recruitment and control of migrant labor are integral elements of state developmental strategies in East and Southeast Asia (Athukorala 2006). Many countries in these regions rely on a large number of migrant workers primarily from Asia, while enacting policies to prevent particularly low-skilled migrants gaining citizenship or long-term residency status. Hence the term “guest-worker policies” is used to denote wide-ranging efforts to prevent migrants who are perceived to possess no advanced skills from becoming citizens or long-term residents. The People's Republic of China (PRC) is an exception to this, as it continues to apply strict migration controls on its domestic “rural workers” that share similar characteristics with guest-worker policies in other Asian states.