MACAU AND THE INDIAN OCEAN WORLD: HISTORICAL NETWORKS OFMIGRATION AND THEIR FUTURE IMPLICATIONS FOR GLOBAL MOBILITY

Abstract

This paper has found out that Macau has a long history of being incorporated into the Indian Ocean world as
well as how the early trends of the maritime migration still inform the current and future global mobility. Since
the sixteenth century Macau served as one of the critical points of the Portuguese Estado da India which connected
China to Goa, Malacca, Bengal, East Africa and the Persian Gulf. These networks helped to circulate merchants,
sailors, soldiers, clerics, enslaved peoples, and systems of knowledge forming one of the earliest Asian
multicultural port communities. This paper presents a historical analysis of migration, cultural exchange, and
trade relationships by claiming that the history of Macau can offer valuable data about the current and future
regional mobility based on the Greater Bay Area, the Belt and Road Initiative, and the Digital Silk Road. The
article illuminates the ways in which the Indian Ocean heritage of Macau can be used to construct the future
transnational flow, the hybridization of cultures, and connectedness of the world.