APMRN
UPDATE No 8, May-June 2000
Articles in
this issue
Report
on the Philippines Network 4th General Assembly
by Lorna P. Makil
Some 47
participants attended the 4th General Assembly of PMRN on 4 February
2000 at the Bay View Hotel in Manila. In addition to PMRN members, the
participants included guests and representatives from government
agencies as the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency, the Philippine
Center for Transnational Crime and the National Statistical
Coordination Board; academic institutions including the University of
the Philippines' Population Institute, Center for Women's Studies, and
Law and Economic Development Institute; the country offices of UNDP and
UNFPA and the IOM Asia-Pacific regional office; and other local NGOs
such as the Institute on Church and Social Issues.
The
assembly opened with a keynote address by Dr. Mercedes B. Concepcion,
renowned Filipino demographer and Commissioner of the Philippine
Commission on Population. Dr. Concepcion drew attention to continuing
concerns in the study of internal migration including methodological
issues in the measurement of population mobility, the lack of data on
short-term migration to towns and cities, and the role of social
networks in linking places of origin and destination, as well as
addressing international migration issues such as the consequences of a
prolonged period of economic downturn on East and Southeast Asia's
highly mobile workers and the link between illegal movements and
organized crime.
Following
the keynote address, Dr. Marla Maruja B. Asis, Director of Research and
Publication of the Scalabrini Migration Center, read a paper on
"Filipino Return Migration" based on a study of Filipino migrant
communities. She described the situation of return migrants as marked
by problems of continuously looking for employment and stretching
budgets, prompting many to seek overseas employment again and again.
Dr. Asis noted that though legal and institutional policies and
programs are in place to help return migrants, much remains to be done
to transform these into effective programs that will help in the
economic re-integration of returnees.
Prof.
Aurora de Dios, College Dean of Miriam College and Executive Director
of the Coalition Against the Trafficking of Women in Asia and the
Pacific, next discussed the "Social Construction of Filipino Women
Entertainers Abroad", using data she collected in the Philippines and
Japan. Prof. de Dios described how Filipino women entertainers become
integrated into Japan's sex-service industry and the processes that
lend them vulnerable to exploitation and hazardous work conditions.
The third
presentation was made by Reverend Kim Enju of the Korea Church of Women
United which operates a Counselling Center for Migrant Women Workers in
Seoul. Rev. Enju shared the results of a survey of Foreign Women
Entertainers in Korea undertaken in four US military facilities and one
foreign business district in South Korea. Most of the women
entertainers come from the Philippines and Russia, with the rest from
Sri Lanka, Nepal and Indonesia and were have been misled into believing
that they would have good-paying jobs in Korea as dancers, singers and
waitresses when they were recruited.
Professor
Stephen Castles, Director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Social
Transformation Studies and Director of the Asia-Pacific Migration
Research Network (APMRN) International Secretariat in Australia read
the fourth paper, "Globalization, Migration and the Nation-State:
Western Experiences and Asian Dilemmas" in which he contrasted the
immigration histories of Western and Asian countries and the impact of
these on the formation of their nation-states. Globalization and
international migration processes will prompt a re-examination of state
rules on immigration, and of policies on citizenship or membership in
the state, and on the management of ethnic diversity and cultural
pluralisms within countries.
The fifth
paper, "A Preliminary Study of Foreign Nationals in the Philippines:
Strangers in Our Midst?" was read by Prof. Jorge V. Tigno of the
Political Science Department, University of the Philippines. He
presented the initial findings of his research on the status and
situation of foreign nationals in the country, classifying them into
four groups, namely, permanent resident aliens, retirees, foreign
students, and temporary visitors or tourists.
The 4th
General Assembly of PMRN ended with a brief business meeting. PMRN's
current set of officers were requested to serve for another term. The
PMRN plans to publish the papers and proceedings of its 4th General
Assembly.
top of page
Pacific Workshop on Migration, Suva October 1999
A workshop
to identify key research issues in the Pacific was held at the
Universty of the South Pacific (USP), Suva in October 1999.
Participants came from from Samoa, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand. A
number of research proposals were drafted and presented, one of which
received support from Ford Foundation emergency funds: Expiry of
Agricultural Land Leases and Migration: An imminent Fijian Crisis.Given
recent developments in Fijian politics, this study by Profs. Vijay
Naiduand Mahendra Reddy from USP will be timely in its analysis of
ethnic relations, land ownership and resettlement issues in Fiji.
top of page
Researchers Appeal to Japanese Government
A 5 month
campaign to support a number of foreign workers and their families who
had overstayed their visas in Japan has been successful in securing a
"Special Permission for Residence" for most of the individuals. The
campaign began in October 1999 by migration scholars and NGOs in Japan
to support the claims of the migrants who were scheduled to be deported.
After the
APMRN Symposium on Migration Trends in Japan in September 1999, the
advocacy campaign also attracted international attention. By
mid-November, an appeal with 593 signatories was submitted to the
Japanese Ministry of Justice to grant the foreigners special permission
for residence.
The Japanese
Ministry of Justice announced in February 2000 that 16 out of the 21
foreign workers and dependants would be given special Permission to
remain in Japan. Apart from the appeal submitted to the Ministry, the
advocacy movement held public meetings and a press conference in Tokyo
to raise awareness of the issues. It also published a booklet about the
case.
The advocacy
network of researchers highlighted the role of migration researchers
taking an active interest in policy making. The network also became
influential beyond the academic communities, developing links with NGO
communities and the general public.
top of page
APMRN Research: Can it Assist Policy Making?
Since the
3rd APMRN Conference in Tokyo last year, the APMRN Secretariat has been
undertaking a number of tasks, including a review of our objectives and
project possibilities. The review was triggered by a questionnaire from
UNESCO-MOST which asked all associated networks to review their
achievements and problems and suggest ways to build future cooperation.
The APMRN Secretariat and a number of individual members responded.
The APMRN
has been building its network since 1995, and in response to a
UNESCO-MOST questionnaire, found that the issue of policy and research
linkages was one of the more important tasks the Network needed to
address. Many APMRN members have established good links with government
and non-government policy makers in the region and have demonstrated
that migration research is essential to understanding the social
transformations affecting all countries in the Asia Pacific region.
Undertaking
a major survey of policy will require substantial resources and survey
expertise. Robyn Iredale, Tim Turpin and Patrick Brownlee from the
APMRN Secretariat have been exploring the possibility of undertaking a
major survey of how migration and social policy research is developed
and utilised by policy makers in the region.
The
Secretariat is preparing a pilot project and will be seeking funding to
determine the best way to undertake a survey of policy making in the
region. It is a theme which APMRN members will have the opportunity to
discuss at future conferences and hopefully share experiences of how
researchers and scholars can engage the policy making community.
top of page
New
Directions: New Settlers - Migration and New Zealand Society into the
21st Century
by Richard Bedford
On 12 and 13
April 2000 the New Zealand Migration Research Group (Department of
Geography and Population Studies Centre, University of Waikato, New
Zealand) and Massey University's "New Settlers Programme" ran a joint
meeting at Wellington's Law School in the old Government Buildings for
researchers, policy makers, members of NGOs and the general public on
contemporary migration issues in New Zealand.
The meeting
was co-sponsored by the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO,
UNESCO's Asia-Pacific Migration Research Network, the International
Metropolis Project, and the New Zealand Immigration Service. Around 80
people attended the two days of paper presentations and discussions. Mr
Chris Hampton, General Manager of the New Zealand Immigration Service,
"launched" the first day's programme, while Ms Brenda Radford, National
Manager in the Race Relations Conciliator's Office, initiated
proceedings on the second day. A production team from "Asia Dynamic"
participated in the meeting and a segment of their regular TV1
programme on Saturday 13 May was devoted to interviews with
participants and discussion of some of the key findings presented in
the papers.
Most of the
presentations made at the meeting related to research funded by the
Public Good Science Fund, either through FRST (the "New Demographic
Directions Programme" at the University of Waikato, and the "New
Settlers Programme" at Massey University) or through the Marsden Fund
(the "[Extra]Ordinary Auckland Project" at the University of Auckland).
Associate Professor Andrew Trlin and his "New Settlers" team reported
on their longitudinal study of the settlement experiences of Indian,
South African and Chinese immigrants (Monica Skinner and Andrew Trlin),
as well as their detailed studies of the immigration industry (Kirsten
Lovelock), immigrant small business ventures (Nicola North), and the
participation of immigrants in local authorities in New Zealand (Noel
Watts).
A team of
Auckland University geographers (Robin Kearns, Laurence Murphy and
Wardlaw Friesen) examined contemporary transformations in Auckland's
"ethnoscapes" with particular reference to property markets and issues
of cultural identity.
The
University of Waikato team contributed pa pers on the astronaut family
phenomenon and return migration amongst recent Asian immigrants (Elsie
Ho), migration and rural social change in the Central North Island
(Jacqueline Lidgard) and the prospects for international migration into
the twenty first century (Richard Bedford). Papers from the meeting
will appear in forthcoming issues of the New Zealand Population Review.
In addition
to the New Zealand contributions, Howard Duncan, Director of the
International Metropolis Project's North American arm, outlined the
rationale for, and development of, this major international initiative
to foster interaction between researchers, policy makers and members of
service organisations working with/for migrants. New Zealand is a
member of the Metropolis project (Professor Richard Bedford is the New
Zealand Immigration Service's contact with the project) and has
contributed to a number of Metropolis's international conferences in
the past.
top of page
Study
on Migrant Women Returnees
A joint
research project on migrant women returnees funded by the Ford
Foundation has commenced, lead by the Asian Research Center for
Migration at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
Research
teams from Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and China have begun
surveying 100 returnee migrants on their experiences, including the
impact on their physical and mental health. 10-15 in-depth interviews
will be conducted with selected returnees and their families in each of
the countries.
Female
migration in the Asian region has become a significant issue for
researchers and governments since the 1980s. According to official
government statistics, over 60 percent of all new hirees from the
Philippines were female. For 1997-99 over 50 percent of all government
registered labour migrants from Indonesia were women. In Thailand,
nearly 20 percent of all officially registered overseas labour migrants
were women. An estimated 3000 women from Yunnan entered into sex work
in Thailand between 1990-1996.
The patterns
of male and female migration are in no way uniform. As preliminary
research for this project has shown, in some areas women are the
principle migrants. Marla Asis, of the Scalabrini Migration Center,
recently studied four communities in the Philippines and found three
communities saw predominantly male out-migration while women were the
majority in the 4th community.
Previous
research has focused on explanations of the phenomenon and the
vulnerable position of women migrants in highly gendered labour
markets. Commentators have mostly explained increasing female labour
migration as being a household rather than an individual decision,
suggesting that women migrate and return and do not consider their own
social and economic mobility outside family.
Most studies
pay little attention to social consequences of women's migration and
women's own abilities. There is little examination of the impact of
women's labour migration on gender relations and little research into
the reintegration process.
The project
aims to address the problem from this perspective. The four research
teams plan to meet in July this year to compare the initial survey
findings.
top of page
