ESF Conference Labour Migration and Socio-Economic Change in Southeast and East Asia
14-16 May 2001 in Lund, Sweden

By Nicola Piper (NIAS, Copenhagen) and Ratna Saptari (CLARA, Leiden/Amsterdam)

This conference was jointly organised by the Changing Labour Relations in Asia Programme (CLARA), the Centre for East and Southeast Asian Studies at Lund University,Sweden and the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS) in Copenhagen, Denmark. The aim of the workshop was to bring together a number of European and Asian scholars who are working on labour migration at different levels of analysis and to explore the commonalities and diversities of structures and experiences of migration within a historical and comparative framework.The focus was on Southeast and East Asia particularly because these regions include some of the most dynamic but also volatile economies in Asia. Twenty two papers were were presented by scholars from highly diverse disciplinary backgrounds.

Local and Regional Trends of Migration:

Many of the papers looked at the magnitude and trends in migration patterns which are influenced by a combination of macro and micro factors, and by political and economic transformations in sending and receiving countries. In general labour migration (whether rural-rural, rural-urban, or urban-rural) is a reflection of inequalities between different areas within a nation state, or between different countries. However political and social conjunctures influence to a large degree which categories of workers move out of certain jobs and which move in. It was indeed interesting to hear from the presentations how, for instance, as Taiwanese workers are moving out of local labour markets (or moving up), Filipino, Thai, Indonesian, Malaysian and Vietnamese workers are filling these slots; or how when Thai workers are going out to East Asia, Cambodian, Laotian, Vietnamese and Burmese migrants are filling some of the slots the Thai workers vacated.

The movement of labour has also shifted throughout the decades. It was shown that whereas many Southeast Asian migrants (and South Asian) originally moved to the oil rich countries of the middle east to find better earning jobs - with the closing up of segments of the labour market to certain categories of migrant workers in these countries or with the increasing protest from the civil societies of sending countries against harsh treatment of migrants, these migrants have shifted to East Asia. This has been the case of Thai and Indonesian workers for instance.

In many cases also the flow of migrant workers into a country challenges the position of local workers. This was evidently seen in the case of South Sumatra (Indonesia), or also in the case of Taiwan where gradually Taiwanese workers felt threatened by the presence of foreign workers and started to organize against their recruitment into the labour force. In Vietnam and Taiwan, upland 'tribal' communities are feeling threatened by the migration of people from other parts of the country in search of land. It was however argued, in the case of Thailand, that the immigration of workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, to a certain extent allowed the outflow of Thai workers to other countries.

The history of migration within a given area may to a certain degree influence the intensity and pattern of migration in the contemporary period, as shown in the case of a case study of two Chinese villages (inland and coastal); however this does not predetermine the nature of migration patterns. Also in the case of Nepalese workers migrating to Southeast Asia, the history of Nepalese gurkhas did not shape the kinds of jobs Nepalese workers entered nor the countries chosen. However the links between the past and present are unavoidably significant.

State Regulation of International and Domestic Migrants and Citizenship

Although throughout history, migration occurred with or without state intervention, governments have played a large role in either the encouragement or prohibition of in- and out-migration of people. In post-communist countries where migration has been strongly controlled and regulated with the allocation of residence and permits, there are now changes in policy which have significant consequences for the workers. The movement of people in China is now encouraged in various areas and in a slightly more tempered fashion, also in Vietnam. Legalization of illegal workers, permits given to migrants to move from one place to another, and provision of visa offices are clear evidences of this shift. In the capitalist societies of Southeast Asia, state intervention has gone so far as to establish government agencies to regulate the private brokers existing in both receiving and sending countries.

Benefits to the state of supporting out-migration come in terms of revenues earned and in the easing up of the pressure to provide employment in the face of population growth and income inequality. Yet at the same time it creates new problems when large scale violations and exploitation occurs and pressure comes from the international community and undermines bilateral relations between countries. Ambivalence of governments in patrolling the borders particularly emerge from this dilemma, a situation which is often used in creative ways by migrants themselves and the civil society. The same dilemmas, although of a different nature, are felt by receiving countries.

Migrant workers identities

It has been pointed out by many of the papers that immigrants sustain multi-stranded social relations which allow them to be classified as 'transnationals'. The fact that migrants are more often than not 'permanently temporary' implies also that their identities may change as they move back and forth between their locations of origin and locations of destination. A poignant example is the case of the Korean Chinese (or Chinese Koreans) who move back and forth between China and Korea and their class position move up and down accordingly and the same goes for their cultural identity. Likewise Southeast Asian workers who are at the bottom rung in the Middle East or in East Asia, come back with a higher status and more autonomy in making decisions. On the other hand quite often also as foreigners move into a community, cultural boundaries become more strongly defined and differences can be augmented by culture, race, ethnicity or language.

Migrant Workers Remittances

Various patterns were shown in the use of remittances. Although closely related, a distinction was made between the impact on the local economy, the impact on the households and the impact on the position of the migrants themselves as they return home. In some cases remittances had no effect on the development of the area, as remittances are often swallowed by brokers, or they may intensify the development of moving away from agriculture. Yet in other cases, the indirect link can be seen as money is used to pay debt, to build houses, to conduct local rituals, and to a small degree, for further investment. Analysis of community and household dynamics were not available to show clearly which groups benefited from these remittances and which ones were deprived.

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