Amarjit Kaur

Labour migration trends and policy challenges in Southeast Asia

Abstract Labour migration in Southeast Asia since the 1970s and 1980s must be understood as an integral part of the post-colonial new geographies of migration. The scope and scale of transnational movements have grown rapidly and major states like Malaysia and Thailand between them currently host about 70 per cent of the estimated 13.5 million migrant workers in the region. Singapores foreign labour force accounts for 25 per cent of the countrys workforce. Two phenomena characterize these labour movements. Like labour-importing Western democracies, the major Southeast Asian labour-importing countries rely on the guest worker program to solve their labour shortage problems. They regulate immigration through elaborate administrative frameworks that are focussed on border control while brokerage firms and labour recruiters carry out recruitment, transportation and placement of migrant workers. These countries’ immigration policies also often provide incentives for skilled workers, boost circular migration flows among low-skilled workers, and include severe penalties for unauthorised migrants. Additionally, comparisons between these countries point to patterns of convergence among them. This paper explores migration trends in the post-colonial geography of migration against the backdrop of growing regionalism and the development of regional migration systems and migration corridors. It also examines the “new world domestic order” and the development of gendered migration linkages that have resulted in the expansion of the domestic work sector and care-giving migration.

Wage Labour in Southeast Asia since 1840

PART I: FORMATION OF A SOUTHEAST ASIAN ECONOMY, c.1800 Introduction Economy and Society in Southeast Asia, c.1800 PART II: GLOBALISATION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE: SOUTHEAST ASIA AND THE INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR, 1870-1940 Labour Dynamics in Sugar and Rice Production: Coercion, Contract and Free Labour Urban Centres and Industrialisation: Industrial and Service Workers PART III: SOUTHEAST ASIA SINCE WORLD WAR II: GLOBALISATION, TRADE LIBERALISATION AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL DIVISION OF LABOUR Conclusion: Globalisation, Economic Growth, and Labour

A history of forestry in Sarawak

Tropical deforestation and the associated economic, ecological, and equity issues have become a matter of general interest and concern for scholars, international conservation and environmental organizations, and local pressure groups. ‘Remote’ outposts like Sarawak (‘Land of the White Rajahs’) have suddenly been thrust into the limelight as conflicts arose between different interest and ethnic groups for allocation of land and rights to utilize forest resources. A review of existing knowledge and data is therefore necessary to set rainforest clearance in Sarawak in a local, national, and international political economy context. This paper looks at the following themes: the historical legacy of ‘commercial’ extraction of forest products; the growth of the timber sector and the development of state forest regulation; and the conflicts of interest for allocation of land and rights to utilize forest resources.

Order (and Disorder) at the Border: Mobility, International Labour Migration and Border Controls in Southeast Asia

Labour migration was a dominant feature of Southeast Asian labour history from the 1870s, consistent with open borders, colonial migration goals and the region’s increased integration into the global economy. After the Second World War and decolonisation, restrictive legislation was introduced to halt unskilled labour migration into the region. Since about the 1970s labour migration has assumed ‘new’ regional patterns, coinciding with changing patterns of labour market demands. Migration goals and migratory streams have also changed and emphasise the nationality, race, geographical origins, gender and skills of migrants. Free migration has thus given way to restrictive migration policies and intensified border controls, more sophisticated internal enforcement measures, and a swathe of bureaucratic regulations and procedures. Paradoxically, although the economic incentives for people to move have become stronger, immigration restrictions and intensified border controls in labour-exporting countries now constitute the principal barrier to international labour migration in the region.

Indian Labour, Labour Standards, and Workers' Health in Burma and Malaya, 1900–1940

Indian labour migration to Burma and Malaya in the late nineteenth century was an important dimension of British colonial rule in Southeast Asia and coincided with the regions greater integration into the international economy. Compared to the Chinese, Indians formed an important minority only in these states where they filled a critical need in the urban manufacturing sector (Burma) and the plantation sector (Malaya). Their importance declined after World War Two, both in absolute and comparative terms. There were fewer millionaires and traders among them and their emigration to these territories was largely regulated by law. Moreover, the specific political and economic relationship between the Colonial Office in London and these territories determined recruitment patterns and influenced employment relations and working conditions. In turn, these impacted on the living conditions and mortality suffered by workers and shaped the structure of health services.

Managing Labour Migration in Malaysia: Guest Worker Programs and the Regularisation of Irregular Labour Migrants as a Policy Instrument

Abstract: Malaysia was built on immigration and, like other labour-importing countries, acknowledges the case for temporary labour migration as a solution to labour shortages in the country. The government has endorsed guest worker programs that are typically short term, and that include a range of restrictions to regulate the movement of low-skilled foreign workers. Most exclude explicit reference to labour protections. The State’s low-skilled labour policy essentially vacillates between ensuring a continual supply of cheap labour and instigating crackdowns on undocumented migrants. Although the State originally imposed higher levies on skilled migrants, it has recently amended this policy and currently offers skilled migrants pathways to permanent residence and citizenship. Nevertheless, the sustained reliance on cheap labour and the way the policy is managed are preventing Malaysia from moving up the value chain. Additionally, the activities of labour brokers, disparities in the foreign labour levy system, and demand for labour have contributed to the expansion of irregular migration. Like other countries, Malaysia also relies on the regularisation of irregular migrants as a policy tool to extend legal status to undocumented economic migrants.

Working on the Global Conveyor Belt: women Workers in Industrialising Malaysia

Since the late 1970s Southeast Asias role in the new international division of labour has been a central concern of labour studies on the region. Most of these studies have focused on the export-processing zones in Southeast Asia as locations where concentrations of foreign or joint venture labour-intensive enterprises employ large numbers of women workers to produce goods for export, and where government regulatory controls (including labour rights) are waived. Other research has highlighted the low wages, lack of benefits and disempowerment of women workers employed in these ventures. This paper is a case study of women workers in industrialising Malaysia. In the last four decades, Malaysias economy has undergone several profound economic and social transformations. One involved a transition from agriculture to industry, a development mainly associated with the emergence of a global structure for manufacturing and the birth of a global conveyor belt. Low wage costs gave Malaysia a great advantage in many of the repetitive tasks required by mass production. A second transformation was the massive mobilisation of women in the work force. This paper examines the labour regime associated with the exportoriented manufacturing production systems and aims to provide some explanations of the feminisation of labour and the dominance of short-term employment contracts and subcontracted household production networks.

The Babbling Brookes: Economic Change in Sarawak 1841–1941

The present day economy of Sarawak is characterized by a small but rapidly growing, largely rural population engaged in low productivity, semi-subsistence agriculture; a dependence on the export of a few primary commodities; the relative absence of modern transportation linkages, and a small industrial sector. In many respects, therefore, Sarawak represents a microcosm of the underdeveloped world. Yet for about a hundred years Sarawak was ruled by the white Brooke dynasty and was touted as a true frontier for western expansion and an ideal setting for the exploitation of its natural resources. There was very little development during this period because Brooke rule was inimical to economic progress—the Brookes gave little or no financial assistance to the natives, undertook few developmental initiatives, and expected foreign entrepreneurs and missionaries to provide the rudiments of physical and social infrastructures. The Brookes believed that change, particularly far-reaching or rapid change, would be harmful to the natives. Consequently, when Brooke rule ended, the problems of economic development seemed more intractable while the supposed benefits of ‘white’ rule appeared less tangible.

The Impact of Railroads on The Malayan Economy, 1874–1941

The main contention of this essay is that railways in Malaya were constructed specifically to serve the tin and rubber industries which were dominated by Western capitalist enterprise. The railroads were concentrated in the west coast states, reinforcing the trend toward economic specialization that had already begun. The pattern of subsequent capital investment which was related to railroad development produced wide regional inequalities. It gave rise to a spatial dualism that was most evident in the emergence of export-oriented enclaves and the associated infrastructure in the western states, leaving the eastern states outside the mainstream of capitalist development. The railways did not stimulate well-rounded economic development in the country because they had little or no multiplier effect on the local economy. The benefits of railroad construction accrued largely to the British economy. I seek to make clear the links between railway development in Malaya, the emergence of an extractive-colonial economy heavily specialized in tin and rubber, and the incorporation of the country into the international capitalist system.

Economic Globalisation, Trade Liberalisation and Labour-Intensive Export Manufactures: An Asian Perspective

The term globalisation is employed across a wide spectrum to describe the on-going processes of integration of countries into the global economy. Globalisation is not new. According to Peter Lindert and Jeffrey Williamson, ‘[g]lobalisation has evolved in fits and starts since Columbus and de Gama sailed from Europe more than 500 years ago’ (Lindert and Williamson, 2001: 1). It has also assumed different forms, depending on the interactions between states, and the economic imperatives of colonial powers. In its most recent form after World War II, and especially since the 1970s, globalisation is consistent with the establishment of an international institutional structure; the restructuring of manufacturing and role of multinationals in industrialisation in developing countries; and trade liberalisation. Moreover, the extent or level of a country’s integration into the international economy is being measured in terms of economic growth; and the economic performance of different states is assessed in relation to one another. This has raised concerns that growth is being emphasised at the expense of development, and these concerns have been manifested in protest campaigns against globalisation around the world, from Seattle to Sydney.