"A recent conference sponsored by the United Nations Center for Regional Development (UNCRD) in Nagoya, Japan examined the growing importance of labor migration for four major Asian labor importers (Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore) and five major labor exporters (Bangladesh, Korea, Pakistan, Philippines, and Thailand).... The conference concluded that international labor migration would increase within Asia because the tight labor markets and rising wages which have stimulated Japanese investment in other Asian nations, for example, have not been sufficient to eliminate migration push and pull forces...."
The study of migration helps us to grasp the social evolution and the political and economic strategies required to meet the new economic trends. The issue of permanent or temporary migration, long debated in the 1960s, now tends to disappear. Migrants are compared more to commuters on the international labor markets. Besides the economic out-migration flows, there are also the refugee migrations or the ever present phenomenon of persons uprooted from their home country as a result of natural disasters and famine. The worldwide economic crisis in the 1970s, the recession affecting some industrialized countries which used to be traditional labor-importing countries have barred many potential immigrant workers from entering these countries. If, on 1 hand, the persistent high rate of unemployment due to the transformation of industry and the computerization process has caused the dismissal of numerous unskilled--mainly immigrants--on the other hand, it has created the exigency of highly qualified personnel. The children of the indigenous population are therefore favored because of their better scholastic training. A 2nd generation is now condemned to remain marginal even though they have been brought up to the ideals of social improvement and integration into higher standards of living. A highly dissatisfied category of young people is now an integral part of many labor-importing countries. Many industrial countries are flirting with zero population growth. Considering the demographic, economic, social, and political imbalances which exist and tend to grow, the world now has all the prerequisites for huge and prolonged migration flows originating from the South and moving almost exclusively toward the megacities and the industrial countries in the North. As long as technological as well as social inequalities persist, inner and international migration flows will continue. It is evident that the aim of many highly industrialized countries is the total ceasing of all forced migration flows. A more intense, productive, and efficacious cooperation between North and South seems to be the only possible option available, but the cooperation must not solely be bases on aid and must include financial and organizational cooperative ventures.
International migration is not new to the Philippines. In the recent outflow of contract workers to the Middle East there is a shift from individual and family initiated migrations to the more organized highly commercial variety. While profit-taking intermediaries have played some role in the past the increase in the number and influence of these intermediaries has altered the story of migration decision-making. In 1975 the signing of the bilateral labor agreement between the governments of Iran and the Philippines signalled the rising demand for Filipino contract workers. From 1970 to 1975 the number of Asian migrant workers in the Gulf countries rose from about 120000 to 370000. These figures rose dramatically to 3.3 million in 1985. The growing share of organized and commercialized migration has altered migration decision making. Primarily intermediaries are able to broaden access to foreign job and high wage opportunities. Commercialization effectively raises the transaction costs for contract migration. Studies on recruitment costs and fees show that self-solicited foreign employment costs less than employment obtained through recruitment agents and intermediaries. The difference in the 2 prices is due not only to overhead costs of intermediation but more importantly to the rent exacted by agents from having job information and placement rights. In the Philippines in October 1987 the average placement fee was P8000 greatly exceeding the mandated maximum fee level of P5000. This average is understated because the computation includes the 17% who do not pay any fees. The widespread and popular view of recruitment intermediaries is negative dominated by images of abuses and victims. Private intermediaries and the government bureaucracy need each other. Intermediaries need government; their consistent demand for incentives and protection is indicative. On the other hand government expands its supervision of control of overseas employment via the intermediaries. For both the community at large and the government more can be gained in endeavors assisting workers and their families to make choices based on the widest available information. The most valuable program is that of providing correct information on recruitment charges and costs on work and living conditions at the job site on family and social consequences.
The Philippine labor export policy, though always stated as a temporary policy, has been implemented for over a decade. From the beginning it has had 2 main features: 1) a strong presence of the government in the process of sending overseas contract workers, especially through the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), and 2) the increasing involvement of the private sector, notably the recruitment industry, in the implementation and, to a certain extent, in the policy formulation of labor export policy. Another feature is the change in the structure of overseas contract workers over the years from a male-dominated to an increasingly female-characterized temporary migration. During the past few years, increasing attention has been focused on the actual and potential role in the process of development of non-governmental support groups, commonly known as Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). This paper focuses on the NGOs which have a direct link, and to a limited extent those with an indirect link, with the issue of migrant workers. The paper attempts to 1) come up with a typology of these NGOs based on certain classification criteria, 2) elaborate on their main patterns of support services, 3) pinpoint some of their weaknesses as an organization and in delivering services, and 4) draw a picture of future prospects. NGOs came about mainly because of the social aspect of migration. Most of the NGOs were formally organized in the early 1980s, except those serving the sea-based workers and the Philippine Nurses Association. A limited number of NGOs in migration are exclusively servicing migrant workers; the others have broader target groups, such as women's groups and trade unions. Services provided to the migrant workers include, especially in the early stages of the organization, mainly advocacy and non-economic activities related to the pre-departure of the migrant workers. Many activities are related to the pre-departure stage. Few NGOs are extending their services on the job sites; reintegration activities, though recognized and already started, are still inadequate. Loose coordination exists among the NGOs. There is an absence of networking and a lack of formal participation in decision-making on issues related to migrant workers.
This article surveys the arrivals of Muslim refugees from countries in Southeast Asia who have not only come to Malaysia for political refuge, but who have also stayed on, in many instances integrating into the local Muslim community. The author concludes that Burmese, Thai, and Filipino Muslim refugee-cum-migrants, and the estimated 500,000 illegal Indonesian migrant workers in East and Peninsular Malaysia make the presence of economic migrants in Malaysia's towns and rural sectors a far more pressing concern to Malaysians than that posed by the arrival of genuine political refugees. Only the Indonesians present in Malaysia are consistently termed by all parties as illegal migrants and some of them have been subjected to well-publicized deportation by the Malaysian immigration authorities. Sympathy for fellow-Muslims in distress explains Malaysia's open-door policy to Muslim refugees. The Koran specifically enjoins Muslims to assist Muslim refugees who have been persecuted by others. However, the necessity to maintain regional political and military alliances, principally as a bulwark against Communism, and the Malay--Non-Malay, Muslim--Non-Muslim dichotomy in Malaysia which almost evenly divides Malaysia's 16 million population into mutually antagonistic halves, results in any overt public policy in favor of Malays and Muslims to be immediately denounced by the other half of the population as a move against the Non-Malays and Non-Muslims. Without political and media attention, the refugees live wherever they can find work, as do hundreds of thousands of mainly Indonesian illegal migrant workers. They surreptitiously get their children admitted to public schools, and through bribery, can even get Malaysian identification papers. Malaysia is a relatively tranquil haven for Malaysia's Muslim refugees compared to their homelands, but their continued stay remains dependent on the ever-present struggle for more equitable sharing of political and economic power between the different ethnic groups in Malaysia. At present, it is deemed inopportune to discuss publicly the issue of Muslim refugees in Malaysia. To do so would be to invite strong emotional responses from Malaysian Muslim groups objecting to refugee repatriation to what they see as continued persecution in Southeast Asia's non-Muslim countries, and from non-Muslim Malaysians who see in their continued presence a possible long-term demographic threat. Furthermore, the presence of Muslim evacuees granted refugee status brings painful memories as to why non-Muslim refugees principally from Indochina were denied such a similar privilege.
