Governance of migration and transnationalisation of migrants' rights - an organisational perspective: paper presented at the conference on 'Transnationalisation and Development(s): Towards a North-South Perspective', Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany, May 31 - June 01, 2007

Contents: Introduction; Temporary Migration Schemes and Migrants’ Rights issues in Asia; Governing architecture - controlling or protecting migrant workers?; Transnationalisation of Migrants' Rights; Organisational Representation of Migrants in Asia; Concluding Remarks

Temporary Economic Migration and Rights Activism - an organisational perspective

Temporary contract migration schemes have experienced a revival in Europe. Such schemes mean that a significant number of migrant workers have limited access to rights and entitlements, let alone full citizenship. The temporary nature of their migration poses obstacles to traditional ways of organising workers. This changing landscape of migration dynamics, thus, requires a changing landscape of migrant rights activism also. The focus in this paper is on collective activism by social justice organisations and their engagement with, and handling of, the subject matter of migrant workers’ rights. Based on insights from scholars working on social movements and transnational advocacy networks, I argue that a trans-national and trans-institutional perspective is required in addressing temporary migrants’ socio-economic and legal insecurities, and it is the concept of the ‘network’ which captures best these interactions between multiple actors at multiple sites

Southern Sites of Female Agency: Informal Regimes and Female Migrant Labour Resistance in East and Southeast Asia

This chapter focuses on FDWs’ collective activism and middle-class campaigns in sending and receiving countries in East and Southeast Asia around foreign domestic worker issues. The chapter begins with a brief overview of female labour migration in East and Southeast Asia followed by a discussion of the formal regimes that seek to regulate it. It then proceeds to discuss the informal regimes that have emerged both within and across national borders since the 1980s, using examples from several countries in the region. The final section focuses on the implications of interactions between the formal and informal regimes associated with foreign domestic labour. The chapter concludes that although serious obstacles continue to hinder migrant worker groups’ and migrant labour NGOs’ campaigns, these groups are engaged in an increasingly important form of transnational collective action that enables defiance and provides a mechanism through which to attempt to influence the formal regimes that regulate the personal and working lives of FDWs

From Asia to the World: “Regional” Contributions to Global Migration Research

Migration from Asia has become an important theatre of regional and international migration and thus the crucible of theoretical developments which have attracted global attention. Yet, these contributions have not received explicit acknowledgement. This paper sets out to address this gap by outlining the cross-border, mostly South South, migration especially along corridors between and across East, Southeast, South and West Asia. Empirically, cross-border intra-regional migration in search for work and livelihoods has been a significant feature in Asia for many decades, with male migrants generally responding to the need for workers in the productive sectors and female migrants mostly (but not exclusively) recruited to care work or other reproductive sectors. Over time, this migration has become increasingly multi-directional and complex in terms of categories of migrants, drivers and outcomes. This paper outlines some of this complexity before going on to focus on three themes – labour migration, impact of migration on the family, and governance and politics – to showcase the regional specificities of migration corridors in Asia. In doing so, it points to the implications of the globalisation of Asian specificities for migration thinking

Racism, nationalism and citizenship : a comparative analysis of Britain and Germany.

This thesis is about the consequences of the permanent settlement of former labour migrants and the formation of 'new' ethnic minorities in contemporary Germany and Britain. It is concerned with the extent to which these minorities are regarded as citizens of German and British society and as potential citizens of the European Union. The core of the argument established here is that there is a link between the processes of racialization and nationalism which leads to an exclusionary concept of citizenship. This link is concretized by the intermingling of nationality and citizenship, or - in other words - the racializing concept of membership, as reflected in law or in the perception of law by civil society. The question of whether or not citizenship functions, or could function, as a mechanism for inclusion and participation for former post-war labour migrants of non-European origin and their descendants is central to the thesis. The ways in which, and the reasons why, settled immigrants do not enjoy fully equal status as citizens in German and British society is examined. In addition, as both countries are members of the European Community, a secondary aim is to discuss how these issues are reflected, or dealt with, on the European level. The empirical data used to probe the theoretical discussion of the relationship between nationalism, racism and citizenship derive from interviews with organizations working in the so-called 'race relations field' to gain insight into ethnic minorities' perspective. Furthermore, secondary analysis of attitude surveys and opinion polls illustrates civil society's viewpoint which is connected to politicians' rhetoric - one of the aspects tested via discourse analysis of parliamentary debates on ethnic minorities' related issues. Recent supra- and sub-national developments (Le. integration into the European Union, the principle of subsidiarity and the establishment of the Committee of the Regions) lead to the suggestion of a three-layered conception of citizenship with three levels of collective identity, i.e. local, national and European. It is argued that the local level is probably the most effective to resist the power of racism and nationalism. Finally, it is argued that only a concept of citizenship unrelated to nationality (Le. ethnic descent) can function as a mechanism for the inclusion of 'new' ethnic minorities. Citizenship can in this way become the source of a new post-national or post-conventional identity based on residential criteria

Dynamics of Interethnic marriages : the case of Korean-Japanese couples

Since the mid-20th century, a dramatic rise in the number of international marriages can be observed, with Japan being one of the host countries to increasing numbers of international couples, adding to the various types of inter-ethnic relationships already present among its minority populations. Most research that has dealt with international marriage derives from the context of well-educated, middle-class couples in Japan, focusing on cultural aspects and marital everyday life. Not much has been written about the wider, socio-economic and historical framework establishing links between lived personal experience and broader social factors. Macro-and micro-level forces that affect cross-cultural relations are often not linked up. In order to understand the dynamics of marriages in general and "mixed" marriages in particular from a gender perspective, the main argument here is that inter-ethnic marriages need to be contextualized with two main analytical frameworks : 1. patriarchy and 2. the sexual division of labour, both in their crossborder links. Occurrence of, and the possible marital problems in, cross-cultural marriages are to a larger extent related to gender differences and global patriarchal structures than to ethnicity or "racialisation" The specific context of Korean-Japanese couples constitutes the empirical focus of this article. A distinction needs to be made between the "oldcomer" and "newcomer" Korean residents and their specific historical background. Overall, in this article, inter-ethnic marriage is contextualized with a gendered analysis of socioeconomic development and labour migration, set within the framework of the global political economy and the global patriarchal system

The Gender-Migration-Employment Nexus

This paper discusses the broad theme of this conference -that is, how migration impacts upon families -from the specific perspective of gender in the context of employment. I shall give particular attention to those migrants who end up working in low skilled, low paid jobs in destination countries. Gender is treated here as a relational concept, juxtaposing not only male migrants versus female migrants, but also pertaining to relations between generations (parents, children, grandparents), employer and worker, based on socially constructed understandings of specific roles and patterns of behavior according to sex, generational standing and socio-economic status. When a gender dimension is incorporated into the analysis, it also brings to the fore the social dimensions of the issues under debate. I start this paper by outlining the main analytical framework used for the analysis of the issue of gendered labour migration which is based on establishing a link between three feminisations: of poverty, work and migration, thus addressing the causes and consequences of migration, posing the question what the implications of the three feminisations are for gender and family relations more broadly (dealt with in section II). The final section outlines the main rights issues and makes suggestions for policy intervention