Cross‑Border Labour Flows In Southeast Asia: Patterns and Prospects

Undoubtedly 1989 was the year of the international migrant. Semanticists of international migration give him many names ? refugee, asylum seeker, contract labourer, gticst worker, permanent migrant, settlement migrant. By whatever name they come, they all have one thing in common: they are driven by an intense yearning and hope to improve either the objective or subjective conditions of life, or both. As transport and communication technology makes the world compact and its population more mobile, it seems that an increasing number of them refuse to tolerate tyranny and economic tribulation, and look towards life in more affluent and politically less stifling areas in the world.1 It is axiomatic that cross-border flows of population are both the cause and consequence of several important and lasting social, economic, and political developments (or the lack of them) in the sending and host countries. The inexhaustible exodus of East Germans which resulted in the dreaded Berlin Wall2 crumbling down is eloquent evidence of the far-reaching and momentous changes that can be brought about by the transnational mobility of people. Recent labour migration from the Philippines and Thailand to the Middle East and elsewhere is an example of people seeking to enhance the material aspects of life and the inability of resource-rich host populations to meet the labour force needs of burgeoning economies. Continuous streams of Vietnamese refugees landing on the shores of Southeast Asia epitomize the flight of a people from an oppressive political regime as well as depressing economic realities. This article examines the pattern of labour flows across national boundaries in Southeast Asia and provides an inventory of factors and policies shaping them.