Migrant Workers and ASEAN by Anisa Santoso

Author:Anisa Santoso [Santoso, Anisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General, Regional Studies
ISBN: 9781315512433
Google: AJq8DgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-04-21T03:25:38+00:00

4  The present and future of workers’ migration in ASEAN

Perspectives from Malaysia

Introduction

Among ASEAN member countries, Malaysia recruits the largest number of intra-ASEAN workers. This chapter focuses on the dynamics surrounding workers’ migration to Malaysia. Malaysia and other countries of ASEAN – particularly Indonesia – have a long history of worker migration, stretching back to the mid-nineteenth century. In comparison to fellow ASEAN members, Malaysia’s stable economic and industrial growth provides the necessary incentives to attract a large number of Southeast Asian workers into its territories for longer periods of time. This, consequently, makes Malaysia essential in shaping the demands of workers; and thus, the trends and policies relevant to the migration of workers in the region.

Since 2013, the number of Indonesian migrants in Malaysia has reached more than one million people (Orbeta and Gonzales, 2013: 1–4), and more migrants present in Malaysia have moved for employment than for other reasons such as family reunions or to pursue an education. Several memorandums of understanding have been signed in the bilateral context between ASEAN’s major receiving and sending countries; but elevating regulation to the regional level has increased friction and disagreements between the governments and people of member countries. The Malaysian perspective will be explored in this chapter through an investigation of national policies and regulations that govern employment and the rights of workers and, therefore, influence the conditions of foreign workers in the Malaysian territory. Malaysia’s position in the wider project of migrant workers’ protection in ASEAN is significant, not only because the country attracts more workers from the region than any of the other countries in Southeast Asia, but also because its attractiveness for migrant workers reflects the country’s economic and political influence in ASEAN. This will be important at the ASEAN regional policy level, where bargaining and negotiation often does not depend solely on states’ efforts to convince other member countries. It also impacts attempts by domestic businesses and individuals at the domestic level to influence their respective governments’ policy at the regional level. Domestic political dynamics in Malaysia may also help to explain why a coherent, functional, ASEAN-level framework for the protection of migrant workers has yet to be achieved.

The involvement of the Malaysian government in a variety of Drafting Committees for Migrant Workers Protection, at a number of policy levels, suggests that there are multiple channels of influence for discourses and identities from the Malaysian perspective that influence ASEAN policies. Identities and discourses that may be unsupportive of migrant workers’ protection may permeate various ASEAN-level committees and impede the negotiation progress to achieve legally binding regulations for migrant workers’ protection.

It is with this in mind that notions of institutional identities and discourses at the national level will be explored, in order to gain a better understanding of the Malaysian government’s reasoning for taking action its particular course towards foreign policy at the regional level. Two-level games theory suggests that domestic political dynamics can influence international-level policy-making by influencing the values of constituent interactions that affect leaders’ decisions in international negotiations.

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