NEW: SEACA Occasional Paper on Irregular Migration
Posted:  February 14, 2008   04:54:04pm

Excerpts…

Governments constantly attempt to limit flows of migrant workers in the South East Asian region. However, labor migration continues to grow as a result of increasing economic divergence between source and host countries, the bottom-heavy demographic structures of source countries, urbanization, chain migration and expanding inter-regional linkages (Abella 2005: 3; see also Sziraczki 2006: 49). Once in-country, low-skilled temporary migrants are subjected to poorly-regulated, often precarious, living and working conditions. Recognized legal status does not guarantee that the labor or human rights of migrant workers are respected – and in some cases may expose them to additional risks. However, legal status is clearly one of several factors that determine the host-country experiences of temporary labor migrants.

A notable feature of the literature (academic and practitioner) on labor migration in South East Asia is the tendency to concentrate either on the Malaysia-based hubs and Singapore (see for example Asian Development Bank 2006) – to the exclusion of the Mekong hub centered on Thailand – or exclusively on the Mekong sub-system. This report examines responses to irregular labor migration in the three major labor migration systems in the region: the Malay Peninsula and Singapore; the Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippine East ASEAN Growth Area; and the Mekong sub-region. Malaysia and Thailand are the major host countries in those three hubs – and also the primary destination countries for irregular migrants in South East Asia (Wickramasekera 2002: 22).

It is impossible to accurately quantify numbers of irregular labor migrants in any given system. However, Battistella (2002: 8) estimates that irregular migrants constitute 40 per cent of the total number of migrants in the three major migration subsystems in ASEAN. Asis (2004: 207-8) suggests that there are between 1.5 and 2 million irregular migrants in South East Asia, while Chavez (2006: 7) claims that when labor migration reached a peak prior to the Asian financial crisis of 1997, 83 per cent of some 2.6 million irregular labor migrants in the ASEAN region were working in Thailand or Malaysia. This report does not attempt to provide estimates of the number of irregular labor migrants entering the key receiving states of South East Asia, nor does it attempt to give a qualitative assessment of irregular labor migrants’ experiences as individuals. Instead, it seeks to explore the nexus between advocacy groups’ local and transnational activities in general, and the activities of MFA in particular.

Cross-border labor migration – be it through regular or irregular channels – is by definition a transnational phenomenon. Given its transnational nature, it is not surprising that much of the literature on cross-border labor migration in South East Asia asserts that an integrated regional approach based on multilateral and bilateral agreements between nations is the most effective means of confronting contemporary challenges of intra-regional migration flows. One section of this literature is concerned primarily with the regulation of migration and the control of irregular flows of migrants, seeking to generate policy recommendations for government institutions that promote transnational solutions to the ‘problem’ of cross-border labor migration. (See for example Athukorala 2006; Chia 2006; Manning and Bhatnagar 2004). Other studies focus on the human rights of migrant workers (Arnold and Hewison 2006; Kelly 2005; Piper 2004; Taran and Geronimi 2002).

Many studies in this second group highlight the importance of integrating civil society groups in policy-making processes. These discussions of NGOs’ (and more recently trade unions’) attempts to address questions concerning undocumented labor migration are largely situated within discourses of international regulation and regional integration/cooperation (see Chavez 2006; Kelly 2005; Law 2003; Wickramasekera 2002). However, few studies go on to provide any systematic analysis of the role or work of local NGOs or unions on the ground (with some exceptions, like Marcaranas 2004). As a result, there are few substantive accounts of how civil society groups operate in their local context – how they lobby government bodies for recognition of the rights of undocumented migrants, how they seek to influence local policy-making processes, and how they effect change in the lives of undocumented migrant workers themselves. In short, there is a tendency to over-emphasize the role of NGOs in promoting the implementation of international conventions and agreements and their transnational networking activities (for example Iredale and Piper 2003; Kelly 2005; Law 2003) and avoid analysis of local NGOs’ grassroots activities.

The international and transnational dimensions of NGO activism on these issues are clearly important. However, inter-regional cooperation cannot alter the situation of migrant workers in the absence of political will, resources, monitoring and collaboration at the national and sub-national levels. A close understanding of the extent to which local NGOs can foster such an environment – very possibly with the support of transnational networks – is therefore a necessary and important component of any substantial discussion of advocacy attempts on questions concerning documented or undocumented temporary labor migration in the South East Asian region. This report, commissioned by the Migrant Forum in Asia, is part of a series of transboundary research projects for the South East Asian Committee for Advocacy. The report focuses on the advocacy and networking strategies of Thai and Malaysian NGOs on behalf of irregular labor migrants. It is based on interviews conducted with approximately 30 researchers, NGOs, and other stakeholders in Malaysia and Thailand over a one-month period in February 2007 and an extensive review of the literature on labor migration in South East Asia. Information not otherwise referenced in the report is derived from the data collected in fieldwork interviews.

The report identifies the kinds of NGOs involved in advocacy on behalf of irregular labor migrants; the key issues upon which those NGOs focus; and the short-term and long-term strategies they employ in their attempts to improve conditions for undocumented foreign workers at the local level. It concludes that while regional networking and international interventions are necessary to the transnational nature of temporary labor migration, many of the local NGOs in Malaysia and Thailand –perhaps even the majority – are ambivalent about the impact of supra-national initiatives on their day-to-day practice and the national contexts in which they work. The report recommends that regional networks pursue regional strategies while simultaneously building on more opportunities for local partners to identify local concerns and share information with NGOs in comparable country contexts.

Advocacy Responses to Irregular Labor Migration in ASEAN: The Cases of Malaysia and Thailand, written by Michele Ford for Migrant Forum in Asia, is part of South East Asian Committee for Advocacy’s (SEACA’s) Occasional Papers. Released in January 2008, this Occasional Paper is available at the SEACA office: #29-D Mayaman Street UP Village, Diliman, Quezon City 1101 Philippines. For inquiries about the purchase or distribution of the publication, please contact SEACA at info@seaca.net.