Excerpts from the Regional Consultation on "The Impact of Trans-boundary Migration on Urbanisation" (December 1996, Thailand)

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Background

The consultation was initiated and organised by AP2000 UNDP in collaboration with the Asian Migrant Centre and the Asian Cultural Forum on Development.

This regional consultation, as part of the process to localising Habitat II, was strategically aimed at facilitating the formulation of regional, national and community action programmes to further humanise migration

Impacts of Trans-boundary Migration

The Asia-Pacific Region will witness many undesirable changes, especially in the urban areas. Migrant labourers who are not protected by the law can bring about various social problems. We can list the impacts of transnational migration and challenges for each government as follows:

2. Education

THIRTY-ONE-YEAR-OLD NIMA SERABI HAILS from Situbondo, East Java. One of two million foreign workers in Malaysia, she is employed as a cleaner at a Kuala Lumpur department store. Her pay is 620 ringgit (about $143) a month, which is less than what her husband earns back home but is enough to cover her son's education and to feed needy relatives.

Farther north, Farid (not his real name) roams the streets of Bangkok, peddling packets of nuts for 20 baht (40ó) each. "Often I earn [$4 to $6] a day," says the Dhaka native. He claims this is more than he could earn in Bangladesh. Unlike Nima, Farid is an illegal alien, and evading police is part of his precarious existence.

Low-income workers in foreign countries seldom have it easy, but Nima and Farid may soon find that even this tough life will be denied them. Nima, currently halfway through her five-year stay in Malaysia, has discovered that her work permit will not be renewed when it expires. "What to do?" she says in a resigned tone. "After my five years is up, I suppose I will have to work at home in East Java." As for Farid, he does not even have the luxury of Nima's two-and-a-half-year grace period; if he is caught, he will immediately be sent packing to Bangladesh.

The party's over and it may be time to go home. That is the message to millions of transplanted Asians such as Nima and Farid. As the region's battered economies struggle to cope with The Great Asian Bust, governments are setting down their priorities -- and last on the list are foreign workers. With high unemployment looming, countries that previously welcomed cheap labor from poorer neighbors are now proving less hospitable. A wide-spread knee-jerk reaction has been to kick out foreigners to make room for locals in the job market.

The recommendations of the consultation were derived from two workgroup sessions and the final plenary session. All these session provide the directives for follow-up work. The recommendations were based on a list of suggested potential areas of work which had been identified by the participants and organisers.

The plenary session on the final day specified nine headings for future work parameters and modes of operation. These were:

1. Promoting the human rights element and responsibilities towards migrant workers and trafficked migrants as a result of urban development, particularly in the areas of entertainment and tourism.
2. In depth examination of existing instruments which govern the treatment of migrants and potential use of them. This should include research on a broad code of practice/guidelines for the treatment of migrant workers in respect of the provision of housing, health and social services.
3. Promoting cross-country information dissemination and campaigns on bilateral or regional basis, including research and documentation on trends of migration and economic impacts in the region. Therefore there was the need for the establishment of an updated database of information on the subject of regional and intra-regional migration through country reports and information sharing.
4. Empowerment by creating a climate to encourage self reliance of migrant workers, e.g. savings and credit, skills development.
5. Utilising a community-centred approach at both local and global levels to breakdown misunderstanding and xenophobic approaches to dealing with the migration situation.
6. Addressing the issues and problems of undocumented migrants including trafficked persons.
7. Provision of training and education for NGOs, semi and governmental agencies on specific issues affecting migrants. And creating partnerships between intergovernmental, governmental and NGOs, working on migration and human settlements for service delivery.
8. Strengthening advocacy on the subject by incorporating and addressing the challenges through multi-dimensional and multi-sectoral approaches. This should encourage partnership with all sectors for the community and government.
9. Strengthen the existing networks of individuals, NGOs, CBOs, regional and international agencies working in the area of migration and migrants and enable them to link up with the broader community. Enhancing networking is to be done by the establishment of an Asian Forum on International Migration.

In Malaysia -- which attracts job-seekers mainly from Indonesia, the Philippines and Bangladesh -- no new work permits for unskilled workers have been issued since August. Moreover, those foreigners employed in the service sector -- Nima among them -- will not be able to renew theirs. There has even been talk of wholesale repatriation. Laborers in the shrinking construction business will fare slightly better: Kuala Lumpur plans to re-deploy them in plantations and factories. Meanwhile, South Korean officials have already shipped out 50,000 guest workers and are planning to turn out as many as 100,000 more in coming months.

The obvious losers in this inhospitable climate -- besides the workers themselves -- are the poorer countries that provide much of the migrant workforce. The decrease in remittances is bound to come as a blow for such countries as Myanmar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, which rely heavily on the foreign earnings of its overseas workers.

A bigger source of anxiety is the unemployment rate, which will be exacerbated by the returnees. Unemployment concerns are felt even more acutely in Indonesia, where the big question is how the country will absorb the surplus labor when the national budget predicts zero growth. Tati Krisnawaty, head of a feminist non-governmental organization, does not see returning workers posing a significant political threat since Indonesia's labor organization remains weak. Nevertheless, she is well aware that rising unemployment is a recipe for instability. "We are afraid for the future, because of the decrease in jobs and the increase in prices," she says.

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Employers of foreign workers would agree. Lim, a contractor in Malaysia, has hired several Indonesians to do semi-skilled work -- carpentry, painting and machining. "Locals don't want such jobs," he remarks. "They don't like the pay." Lim says, "I don't depend too much on [the Indonesians]" -- but other employers complain that without foreign labor, their businesses will suffer. And therein lies the irony of the "foreigners out" measures -- they could make life difficult for both employer and employee. The authorities might well end up creating more problems than they solve.