Migrant Workers in Asean: A Review of Issues and Implications for Government Policies
| Author | Paul Chan Tuck Hoong,Lim Lin Lean |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.1983.tb00462.x |
| Published date | 01 April 1983 |
| Date | 01 April 1983 |
Migrant Workers in Asean: A Review
of
Issues and Implications for Government Policies
BY
LIM LIN LEAN
AND
PAUL CHAN TUCK HOONG
INTRODUCTION
Inter-country migration for employment
has
been and continues to be a phenomenon
of
large dimensions and significant implications
for
the ASEAN countries. The flow of
workers among the ASEAN countries themselves and outside the region particularly to
the Middle East has brought a series of unanticipated social, economic, demographic
and political/diplomatic repercussions for both receiving and sending countries. In this
context, it is important to seek a better understanding of the characteristics, motiva-
tions and socio-economic and legal status of these immigrant workers, and to draw out
the broad policy implications
for
importers and exporters of labour migration
in
the
ASEAN region.
Documentation on international migrant labour flows, however, suffers from a
serious dearth of empirical data. Although the major poles of immigration and the
associated countries of emigration can be identified, the size and characteristics of the
migrant labour flows are not
known.
A
major handicap is that it is not generally easy
to distinguish between permanent immigrants and temporary migrants. Yet it is clear
that the impact of the two groups would be vastly different since their length of stay,
the nature of their visa, their qualifications and position in the labour market and the
number of dependents each group has
in
the host
or
home country would not be the
same.
Our
concern is particularly with the ‘temporary’ migrants for a number of
reasons
:
i)
permanent immigrants generally tend to be high-level skilled workers
or
professions
(those who make up the ‘brain drain’) as compared to temporary migrants who largely
have little
or
no qualifications
or
are unskilled,
so
the implications for the labour
markets
in
sending and receiving countries would be different;
ii)
the numbers involved in permanent migration are normally much smaller than
those who move
for
an unspecified period
of
time to
work
in
another country;
iii)
permanent immigration normally implies legal status granted by the host govern-
ment which is therefore able to keep a close check on the flows
of
such migrants, but
temporary migrants may include large proportions of clandestine
or
illegal migrants
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