Why do 13 million Southeast Asians work overseas and what is their impact of their migration?
It is estimated that there are approximately 13 million migrant workers in the Southeast Asian region. Of these, some five million remain in the region while others have travelled further afield. By far the largest contingent comes from the Philippines, where the remittances returned to families at home represent one of the most important sources of income for the whole country. Millions more travel from Indonesia to Malaysia, where they work in construction and basic industries. Millions travelled from Burma to Thailand where they are mostly undocumented and illegal – after the tsunami in 2004, hundreds and perhaps thousands of Burmese fishermen were among those lost. No one knows exactly how many Burmese were killed because no records are kept of their presence and many of those who survived fled the scene, even refusing badly-needed medical help for fear of the Thai authorities. Thousands more workers are clustered on the borders with Laos and Cambodia, where they either work in the designated labour-intensive industries that they are permitted to do or else gravitate towards the so-called ‘entertainment’ industry or domestic work, neither of which is very well-protected.
The role and impact of migrant workers is very complex because it has so many different dimensions, some are positive and some are negative. On the positive side, it enables people to move overseas to get more money than they otherwise would and thus benefit their families. It helps to keep many activities such as babysitting and personal care at an affordable rate. It enables greater specialization of labour. On the negative side, it depresses wages for all workers and promotes the greater use of low-cost manufacturing, which then leads to greater income inequality. There are also social costs to be borne: groups of men working overseas nearly always become involved with substance abuse to one extent or another and prostitution. These habits have negative impacts on family life on return from migration. Women left alone at home also suffer from various pressures and marriage break-ups tend to be significantly higher in migrant worker families.
Perhaps above all of these considerations is the often very terrible treatment that migrant workers can suffer overseas. There are so many tales of verbal and physical abuse of workers in a range of industries, especially of women who tend to be more vulnerable, not to mention the barefaced cheating of the workers which can happen. The chief of the United Nations, Ban-ki Moon has welcomed the age of migration and it is right to maintain a positive attitude towards the future – but there is certainly a dark side too.
