Asia and the pacific on the move: workers and refugees, a challenge to nation-states - Graeme Hugo

1. Asia and the pacific on the move: workers and
refugees, a challenge to nation states
Graeme Hugo

2. Overview
• International labour migration
• Refugee movements
• Resettlements
• Repatriation programs
• Migrant social networks
• Immigration industry

3. “Major shifts of economic and social events in
Asia pacific in 3 decades”
New era
Massive
scale of
migration
Reunification
of Vietnam
Infrastructure
projects
2nd Asia
population
conference
Independent
nation
restrictions
Colonial
period
19th
century to
end of
world war II
1960s 1972
migration not
mentioned
1973
Infrastructure
projects from
middle east
1975 1980s International
population
movement

4. “Recent trends in refugee migration”
1985-1991 1992 1996
26.4 million identified 17 million identified 13.2 million identified
Asia was holding 2/3rd of the global refugees in 1980s and the reduction happened in 1990s
1989 1995 1996
7 million refugees
officially identified in Asia
Fallen to 5.12 million Fallen to 4.48 million

5. “Recent trends in refugee migration”
More than half of the Asia pacific
region’s refugees (2.35 million) are the
longstanding groups from Afghanistan in
Iran, Pakistan, the CIS and India.
repatriation in 1995
Influenced Asia.
Resulted in move of 2+ million people
from the three former Indochinese
countries.(1996)

6. “refugee outflow from Myanmar”
• Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh due to persecution in predominantly
Buddhist Myanmar.

7. Refugee movements of Asia pacific
UNHCR recognised :
• 70,000 Myanmar refugees in Thailand
• 300,000 Burmese in Thailand
• 90,000 Tamils from Srilanka
• 90,000 Muslim Filipinos in east Malaysia
• 10,000 Irian's from Indonesia to Papua-new
guinea
Pakistan
47%
Iran
24%
China
8%
India
5%
Bangladesh
6%
All other
10%
Asia Pacific Refugee Population end 2011
https://refugeemovements.com/worldmap

8. Blurring of genuine refugee movements
overlap with “economic migration”
• Economic migration is the movement of people from one country to
another to benefit from greater economic opportunities in the
receiving country.
• for example: Mexico to the USA, North Africa to Europe, South Asia to
the Middle East, Burma to Thailand.
• Thailand's hidden workforce – this resulting “ predicting future trends
in Asia refugee migration is difficult”.
• Repatriation of afghan refugees
• Sudden mass flows of refugees across borders – asylum seekers

9. International labour migration
• International labour migration continuous to increase exponentially in
scale and significance.
• 57.9% countries were not self-sufficient in skilled labour
• 16.3% indicated that their countries depended on immigrant labour to a great
extent
• 34.4% said their countries did not depend on immigrants at all.

10. International labour migration type: 1
Regions which have high levels of economic
growth over decades are unable to meet
labour demand generated.
Japan, south Korea, Hong Kong , Taiwan,
Singapore, middle east.
Overseas contract workers
What?
Who?
OCW?

11. International labour migration type :2
What?
Who?
Several Asian nations with substantial labour surplus
also are experiencing significant immigration of
labour
India , Pakistan , Indonesia , Srilanka.

12. What kind of work goes in ILM types?
• type 1:
3D-dirty , dangerous, difficult
• Type 2:
professionals and highly skilled.

13. Difficulties faced
• Underdeveloped nature of international migration data collection
systems in most countries.
• Increase volume of Undocumented migration
• Difficult to obtain destination country data relating to Asian OCWs.
• Many immigrant workers are illegal
• Increasing feminisation of international labour migration in the region

14. Influx of more developed countries (MDCs)
• Investment by multinational companies
• Transfer large number of MDC-origin staff into Asia.
• Mismatches between the education and training systems and labour
market
• Need of expertise – so that had to be imported
• Result – highly trained people from MDCs into growing economies.
1
2

15. A challenge to nation states
• Origin and destination countries policies
• Restriction on women moving overseas
• (Force) movement underground
• Human smuggling
• Employer lobby groups
• Illegal migrant
• Growing dependence on outside labour
• Dominance in particular sector
• Economic dependence
• Strongest threats
• Repatriation

16. Growth of an immigration industry
1. Involvement of complex groups
2. Operation outside law
3. New slave trade
4. Contract coolie
5. Human traffickers
6. Immigration agents
Statement “the above illegal networks often are more trusted and
reliable than official systems”

17. Development of kin and friendship- based
social networks
• Facilitate and encourage migration even when the government
policies strongly oppose it
• Interpersonal ties that connect – migrants, former migrants, and non-
migrants in O&D
• The increase in ties lower the costs and risks of movement
• Network draw and gain access to foreign employment
• The above causes the migration to rise which leads to additional
movements.

18. Role of kin and friendship- based social
networks
• Stock of migrants in destination predict migrants there in the future.
• Earlier generation
• Previous generation
• Pioneer migrants
• Employers drawn into social networks
• Capacity to sustain population flow independently

19. conclusion
• Flor contemplation case
• Case on Saudi Arabian embassy in Thailand
• Emigration were high ~ emigration were not high enough