International Migration in East and Southeast Asia

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International Migration in East and Southeast Asia

• Outi Luova, MA
• University of Turku
• AsiaNet 2005

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International migration in East and Southeast Asia

• Age of Global migration
• East and Southeast Asia current trends
• Two cases China and Japan

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The Age of Global Migration

• Migration is nothing new, so why is our era
  called age of global migration?
• Three major changes
• more conflicts
• increasing economic disparities
• advances in technology
• Cheaper to travel
• Information about foreign countries spread
  easily

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• Three major consequences
• Volume of migration increased, affects all parts
  of the world, related questions more complex
• The nature of labour migration has changed
• Innovations in technology -gt easy to maintain
  contacts -gt transnational migrant communities
• -gt Migration is a truly global and transnational
  phenomenon

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Different Types of Migrants

• Labour migrants
• Refugees
• Trafficked people, forced migration

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Different Types of Labour Migrants

• Level of skills
• High skilled unskilled
• Duration
• Permanent temporary (seasonal, circular)
• Willingness
• At own will forced
• Legality
• Legal - illegal

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East and Southeast Asia

• Tradition of migration
• Green revolution in the 1960s
• Two oil crisis in the 1970s
• Rapid economic development in East Asia in the
  1980s
• In the 1980s migration becomes more a regional
  phenomenon

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East and Southeast Asia
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Regional Migration

• Iraq-Iran War broke out in 1980
• Need for cheap labour in Japan
• Need for cheap labour in the Little dragons
• Chinas reform policies spur international
  migration

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Country by Country

• Migrant sending countries
• China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Burma,
  Cambodia, North Korea, Mongolia
• Migrant receiving countries
• Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, Hong Kong
• Migrant sending and receiving countries
• Malaysia, Thailand

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(No Transcript)
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China, Fujian
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China, Fujian

• Patterns of migration vary regionally
• Massive mobility in China, largest migration flow
  in the human history

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Why do people migrate abroad?

• Economic reasons
• Migration has nothing to do with desperation
  and poverty... it has to do with opportunity
• Social reasons, face
• Chain reaction

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Channels for Migration

• Commercial channels
• Government run, private companies
• Personal channels relatives and friends
• Enter a country as a tourist, student, trainee,
  wife, member of a delegation
• Migration brokers snakeheads
• supported by legal and illegal networks,

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What have the national and local governments done?

• International migration a patriotic act
• Problems caused by the immigration and asylum
  policies of Western countries
• In China, national and local levels attempts to
  curb the problems

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Attempts to Make Migration More Regular

• make legal migration easier
• increase the number of legal channels
• strengthen the local government departments
• spread information about the dangers related to
  migration brokers
• harsher punishments for crimes

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National Level Policies

• Document aimed at curbing irregular Chinese
  migration was jointly issued by several related
  ministries and governmental organs in 1992
• Four articles concerning irregular emigration
  added to the Criminal Law, which detailed the
  punishments applicable to crimes of human
  trafficking in 1997
• The management stipulations of exit service work
  training, 2002
• Methods for transacting the exit procedures for
  labourers, 2002

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Local Level Initiatives in Fujian

• operations to combat local irregular emigration
  activities
• propaganda rounds
• local agreements
• bonus system

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Major Problems

• Regulations are not implemented
• When new regulations are set to curb illegal
  migration, snakeheads quick to find alternative
  ways
• Generally, neither ordinary villagers, nor
  village officials, dislike snakeheads

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Japan

• Level of education
• Population structure
• Ethnic homogeneity important aspect of national
  policy and popular views
• 1980 need for cheap labour
• 1989 immigration law
• Immigrants of Japanese origin
• Entertainers in the quota of professionals
• many enter Japan with entertainer visa but are
  forced into sex trade controlled by criminals

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Immigrants in Japan

• 2 million registered foreign residents
• of which 760 000 workers, 1,5 of the total work
  force
• At least 250 000 illegal foreign migrants
• 200 000 people trafficked annually o Japan
• Annually 70 000 Filipinos leave for Japan to work
  in the entertainment sector
• contribute about 1 billion in annual remittances
  to the Philippines
• many enter Japan with entertainer visa but are
  forced into sex trade controlled by criminals
• resemble more human trafficking than regular
  labour import

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First Phase

• 2002
• Japan signs the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress
  and Punish Trafficking in Persons
• Domestic and international events on the issue

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Second Phase

• Criticism in 2004
• the U.S. State Department's annual Trafficking in
  Persons Report
• report by the International Labour Organization
• Japan decides to react by reducing and
  controlling more strictly the quota of
  professional entertainers

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The Filipino Case

• Limit the number of Filipino entertainers to 8000
  per year
• Easier entry for Filipino health workers
• Consequences for the Philippines?

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Initiatives

• e.g. Anti-trafficking law
• But
• Initiatives focused on criminality related to
  migration and migrants
• designed to control foreigners, not to protect
  them from discrimination and exploitation

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Regional Initiatives

• 1996
• Regional Seminar on Irregular Migration and
  Migrant Trafficking in East and Southeast Asia
• -gt "Manila Process
• -gt Bangkok Declaration on Irregular
  Migration, 1999
• 2000
• The Asian Regional Initiative against the
  Trafficking of Women and Children
• -gt Global Program against Trafficking Human
  Beings
• 2002
• Regional Ministerial Conference on People
  Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related
  Transnational Crimes

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Conclusions

• International migration a complex phenomenon
• More efforts needed to make migration a positive
  and beneficial act for migrants, sending
  countries and receiving countries

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Obligatory reading

• Chinese gang's cruel trade by Batha
  http//news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/797
  489.stm
• Light remains green for Filipinos in Japan --
  well, kind of by Philip Brasor
• Chapter 6 International Migration Trends And
  Patterns in Asia and Oceania in World Migration
  2005 (pages in the printed version 103 - 128, in
  the pdf file pages 79/136 - 104/136)http//www.io
  m.int/jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/
  mainsite/published_docs/books/wmr_sec01.pdf 

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Recommended reading(not obligatory)

• Migration News
• http//migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/index.php
• Scalabrini Migration Centre
• http//www.smc.org.ph/
• Bangkok Declaration on Irregular Migration
• http//www.smc.org.ph/rights/bangkok.htm