Gender and Migration Policies in Southeast and East Asia: Legal Protection and Sociocultural Empowerment of Unskilled Migrant Women

Abstract

This paper is concerned with how existing migration policies affect individual migrant women's choices, in particular, with the advancement, or consolidation, of a migrants' rights perspective. The focus is thereby on those migrants classified as unskilled, who constitute the largest and most vulnerable category among migrants. The analysis of migration policies has conventionally been approached from a state/government-centred viewpoint that sees states as the key actors. This paper, however, emphasises a larger number of actors -governmental and non-governmental -as well as the power relations among them to argue that protection through "legal regulation" in the absence of actual implementation is an incomplete solution to alleviate unfair labour conditions that migrants in general, and migrant women specifically, experience. Measures designed to "protect" migrants must be accompanied by measures that empower them, a role that has largely been taken on by existing migrant worker non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Focussing on intra-Asian migration flows in which Southeast Asia is the main labour sender and East Asia the receiver of Southeast Asian migrants, the paper explores the nexus between law and civic activism in the specific subject area of international labour migration and its gender implications.

Marginalised Care: Migrant Workers Caring for Older People in Ireland

“…Restrictiveness, bureaucracy and delays associated with permit applications were the core problems. Comparable difficulties have been identified in other countries with similar regulatory structures, (Piper 2004, Ruhs and Anderson 2006, Dyer et al 2008. Moving jobs through the permit system was a significant challenge, which became more serious when a carer was attempting to leave an exploitative situation.…”

“…restrictions on labour mobility), and lack of knowledge of entitlements. A number of researchers have documented the role of such factors in the discrimination process (Piper 2004, Dyer et al 2008). The impact of discriminatory behaviour on migrant carers was significant.…”

“…The application criteria, the bureaucratic process and the bonded employer contracts of some government regulations have all been documented in the international literature as issues for labour migrants (Royal College of Surgeons 2008;Piper 2004;Ruhs and Anderson 2006). In Ireland, non-EEA workers are required to obtain an employment permit, of which there are two kinds.…”

A New Explanation of Heterogeneous Human Capital and Trade

“…Table 2 shows Singapore's foreign workers and indicates that those increase rapidly from 248,000 foreign workers constituting 16.1% of the total labor force in 1990 to 612,200 foreign workers constituting 29.2% of the total labor force in 2000. Furthermore, Piper (2004) and Yeoh (2007) offer further that about 112,200 of these foreign workers fall under the category of skilled labor in 2000, that is, skilled workers account for 18.3% (which is equal to 112,200/612,200) of Singapore's total foreign workers. More specification, we observe that Singapore's immigration policies alter the distribution of human capital (Table 2), and then lead to a change in the POT and industrial structure.…”

Japan, Labour Migration, and the Global Order of Difference

“…While much of the discussion of immigrant labour in other parts of Asia has focused on domestic work, Japan is relatively distinctive in not importing large numbers of domestic workers. 43 The explanation for these distinctive patterns of immigration lies in the connection between the gendered division of labour, the labour market and demography. In Singapore, for example, in middle-class families, both partners tend to stay in the full-time workforce in élite occupations, thus necessitating the employment of domestic labour.…”