APMRN
UPDATE No 9, October-November 2000
Articles in
this Issue:
4th
International APMRN
Conference Manila,
March 19-20, 2001
The
Philippine Migration Research Network (PMRN) will host the 4th
International Asia Pacific Migration Research Network (APMRN)
Conference in Manila, on March 19-20, 2001. The conference is titled
Migrations, Economic Changes and Multiculturalism in the Asia Pacific
Region and will be followed by an APMRN business meeting on March 21.
The
conference will examine the patterns of migration and settlement in the
region, the links of such patterns with national and international
forces, and the problems associated with multiculturalism, especially
with respect to the position of ethnic minorities in society.
Papers will be
presented by speakers from the fourteen member networks of the APMRN.
The specific objective of the international conference is to provide a
forum for discussion and exchange of ideas on the following topics:
- The magnitude, trends and patterns of migration and
settlement in countries of the Asia-Pacific region and the national and
international factors that are associated with such trends;
- The
implications of increased international migration on the nation-state
system, especially in light of the growth of global markets and of the
trends toward regional integration;
- The role
and place of ethnic minorities in society and the problems associated
with multiculturalism; and
- Policy
strategies aimed at addressing concerns arising from migration and
ethnic diversity in the Asia-Pacific region.
For more
information please contact the Conference Secretariat at:
Philippine Migration Research Network
c/o Philippine Social Science Council P.O. Box 205, U.P. Post Office
1101 Diliman, Quezon City,
Philippines
Tel. Nos.
(63 2) 929 2671, 922 9627
Fax Nos. (63 2) 924 4178, 929 2671
E-mail: pssc@skyinet.net or tsis.section@skyinet.net
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Malaysia
and the Treatment of Migrants:
The Irene
Fernandez "False News" case puts
Malaysian Justice under the microscope
On July 27,
1995, the Malaysian rights activist Irene Fernandez held a press
conference at which she released a memorandum entitled Abuse, Torture
and Dehumanized Treatment of Migrant Workers at Detention Camps. It
detailed the mistreatment of illegal migrants being detained in
Malaysia, particularly the Seminyih camp outside Kuala Lumpur, and
alleged that over 40 people had died from torture and from treatable
diseases such as beriberi and diarrhoea since the camp was first opened
in 1993.
In March
1996 Fernandez was arrested at her home and charged by the Malaysian
government with 'maliciously publishing false news'. The charges relate
to her allegation that facilities for illegal migrants detained in
Malaysia were unsanitary, that some detainees were beaten and starved
of food and water, that certain women detainees were used for the
sexual pleasure of police and guards, and that corruption was rife
throughout the camp system.
The trial
before Judge Juliana Mohamad began in June 1996 and has now become the
longest running trial in Malaysian legal history. If found guilty of
the charge Fernandez faces a maximum sentence of three years
imprisonment. The Tenaganita director, women's rights activist and
KeADILan supreme council member was recently in Hamburg where Amnesty
International and German NGOs held a benefit rally for her trial
defence.
The court
has now been sitting for over 250 days on the Fernandez matter. Only
recently has the defence team begun to depose its witnesses, several of
whom have made statements to the court concerning incidents of physical
abuse at the hands of the police and security forces at the camp.
Zakir
Hossain, a Bangladeshi former detainee at the Seminyih camp, testified
that during February to April 1995, five inmates were beaten with
sticks and plastic hose pipes for four days in succession. He alleged
that the guards beat the men because they heard the detainees were
planning to escape, and that as a lesson to others the beatings were
administered every time the guards changed duty.
Defence
counsel for Fernandez questioned Zakir about reports of deaths in the
Seminyih camp. He testified that he had seen a Bangladeshi man of
between 40 and 45 years old die from medical neglect and an Indian man
beaten by police for an hour using plastic hoses and sticks.
Defence
counsel requested that the names of all police personnel stationed at
the camp between February and April of 1995 be submitted to the court,
but this request was rejected by the deputy public prosecutor on legal
and technical grounds.
The
Fernandez trial has attracted world-wide interest due to its
implications for human rights and the right to a fair trail in
Malaysia. NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and the International
Commission of Jurists have attended the trial and Amnesty International
has taken an active interest in the Fernandez case.
Another
recent case involving the physical and emotional abuse of an Indonesian
woman has highlighted the lack of government regulation of employment
contracts for domestic workers, many of whom are women from Indonesia
and the Philippines, and the difficult situations that may arise if
they are dismissed from their employment.
The
charging of Fernandez has allowed the whole of the detention camp
system in Malaysia to be placed under international scrutiny.
By
prosecuting Fernandez the Malaysian government has focused attention on
the plight of migrant workers in Malaysia, and on the rights of
Malaysians to speak out in public and criticise their government. The
Fernandez verdict will be eagerly observed in many parts of the world.
(Sources
for this article include: malaysiakini.com; and Sidney Jones, Making
Money Off Migrants: The Indonesian Exodus to Malaysia, Asia
2000/CAPSTRANS (Hong Kong, 2000), available through the APMRN.)
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APMRN
PACIFIC RESEARCH
International Migration and Environmental Transformation in Polynesian
Communities in New Zealand This project's research agenda was developed
by Pacific Island scholars, in consultation with Professor Richard
Bedford, co-ordinator of the APMRN's Migration and Environmental
Transformation research programme, and Drs Wendy Cowling (Anthropology)
and Robyn Longhurst (Geography), all staff members of the University of
Waikato.
It involved
original research and a workshop on the relationships between
international migration and environmental transformation in Polynesian
communities in New Zealand and the eastern Pacific Islands.
The research
was conducted by five Pacific Islanders (four working in Polynesia, one
in Auckland), one Maori, one Australian and one white New Zealander,
and was carried out in the Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and New Zealand.
The key
themes covered in both the Pacific Island settings and in Auckland
included access to urban residential land, transformations in
residential housing, and the nature of domestic gardening, both for
food and flowers.
Dr Yvonne
Underhill-Sem, a Cook Islander specialising in migration and social
transformation in the Pacific, was the project's principal researcher.
She was based in Apia, Samoa, from where she co-ordinated the selection
of researchers and oversaw the organisation of a two day workshop in
Samoa in late June 2000, where the findings were reported.
The research
established clearly that the transmission of cultural and material
values with migration between island societies and metropolitan
countries on the Pacific rim was having significant impacts on the way
residential environments were being developed. In the islands, demand
for freehold residential property is increasing as families invest in
much more substantial housing that has the sorts of facilities found in
houses in Auckland. Such investment is funded largely by earnings or
remittances from abroad. The use of land around the houses is
influenced by gardening styles and practices in urban New Zealand.
In Auckland,
adaptation to the kinds of rental accommodation most Pacific Islanders
can afford is producing innovative responses to the need for more
'social space', as well as a desire to have foods and flowers 'from
home' in the domestic environment. The transformations in residential
environments are producing significant challenges for policy makers and
planners in both urban settings. In the islands, the demands for
freehold land and access to reliable power, water and sewage disposal
systems are increasing with the shift to housing and residence styles
found in Auckland.
In New
Zealand, the innovative use of garages for a wide range of social
activities, and the introduction of plants that have particular
cultural significance (especially medicinal plants) are posing
challenges for local regulatory authorities. The research revealed a
need for a better understanding by policy agencies of the ways
transnational communities transform their residential environments.
A key
outcome of migration is transformation of environments and where
migration is contributing to increasing cultural diversity in both
source and destination countries, the effects of this movement on
residential environments have become more diverse. The workshop in Apia
on 7-8 June, brought together the research team and staff from UNESCO's
Pacific Sub-Regional Office for a very productive dialogue.
The papers
presented at the workshop are currently being edited for publication as
APMRN Working Paper No. 8. The editors are Robyn Longhurst, Yvonne
Underhill-Sem and Richard Bedford and the publication is titled
Flowers, Fale, Fanua and Fa'a Polynesia. Both the project and the
publication have been made possible through funding from New Zealand's
UNESCO Participation Program.
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Conference
Report - "Immigrant Societies and Modern Education"
(Dr Michael
Charney, National University of Singapore)
A full
version of this report is available from the APMRN homepage
This
conference was held at National University of Singapore (NUS) between
August 31 and September 3, 2000, and aimed to examine immigrant
societies and their social, cultural, and economic foundations in the
context of an increasingly mobile world.
Emphasis was
placed on the role of modern education and how it prepares people and
societies to meet the challenges of increased mobility, personal and
institutional transnational interactions, and the new identities,
roles, and activities that result.
Four plenary
speakers highlighted some of the major themes of the conference.
Professor Wang Gungwu (Director of the East Asian Institute at NUS)
presented 'Between Bonding and Being Free: Problems of Choice in
Immigrant Societies'.
Professor
Wang focused on the challenges new migrants have faced in finding a
place in older migrant communities, today and in the past, and how
globalization is currently changing the terms of this integration.
Professor
Anthony Reid (Department of History and Director of the Center for
Southeast Asian Studies at the UCLA) spoke on 'Southeast Asian Studies
and the New Diasporas Ð A View from California' and pointed to the
impact of the emergence of self-aware Southeast Asian immigrant
communities, and their enrollment in Californian universities, and the
revival of Southeast Asian Studies in some areas of the United States.
Professor
Michael P. Smith (Department of Human and Community Development at
University of California, Davis) presented 'Transnationalism and
Citizenship', looking at how the nation-state is adapting to the
challenges posed by transnational migrants and 'supranational
institutional networks.'
Associate
Professor Christine Inglis (University of Sydney) spoke on 'Education
in Multicultural Immigrant Societies: Contemporary Issues', and
examined how education policies in contemporary societies are being
challenged by the intersection of two social developments, 'the spread
of mass education and the increasing mobility of populations'. She
stressed that unlike immigrant populations of the past, contemporary
migrants often view themselves as temporary, creating a new context and
new challenges for nation-states and education policy-making.
Science
and Technology Study for Wollongong Researcher
APMRN
researcher Robyn Iredale has been invited to participate in a pilot
study on International Mobility of Science & Technology
Professionals: Demands and trends, impacts and responses.
The study is
being undertaken at the suggestion of the Indian Ministry of Science
and Technology and UNESC''s committee on Science and Technology in
Developing countries (COSTED) and aims to assess the current situation
in relation to the international movement of S&T professionals.
The movement
of this group of knowledge workers and the subsequent transfer of
information and know-how, as well as the development of knowledge and
business networks, is becoming a crucial element in the generation of
income. Such income may become an important means of poverty
alleviation, provided that the structures are in place to ensure
equitable access to opportunities.
The overall
aim of the study is to investigate the links between the movement of
S&T professionals and development so as to enhance the contribution
that both nationals (resident and non-resident) and non-nationals can
make to an improvement in living standards. Robyn visited Chennai and
Delhi in September 2000 and returned to Chennai in late October for a
preliminary workshop. She will do follow up work on the project during
2001.
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RECENT
PUBLICATIONS ON MIGRATION
50th
Anniversary of the UNHRC
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has just
released a 350 page publication marking the 50th anniversary of its
foundation. The State of the World's Refugees: Fifty Years of
Humanitarian Action examines the major refugee crises of the past
50 years and the changing nature of international responses to the
problem of forced displacement.
It describes
the devlopment of international refugee law and the establishment of
institutions devoted to the protection of refugees and other diaplaced
people.
This timely
and important publication emphasises the need to find lasting solutions
to refugee problems and argues for human security as a basis for peace
and stability. Copies are available from book.orders@oup.co.uk.
Labour Migration in Indonesia: Policies and Practice
The Population Studies Center (PSC) at Gadjah Mada
University,Indonesia, in co-operation with the APMRN, UNESCO-MOST and
CAPSTRANS have released Labour Migration in Indonesia: Policies and
Practice.
The
publication stems from a migration workshop funded by the Japan
Foundation which was held at the PSC, Yogakarta, in 1998. The editors,
Sukamdi, Abdul Haris and Patrick Brownlee, have selected eight papers
which deal with migration both within Indonesia, and between Indonesia
and neighbouring countries, particularly Malaysia.
For your
copy of the book please email Gadjah Mada University at:
psc-gmu@yogya.wasantara.net.id.
A limited
number of copies are also available through the APMRN Secretariat.
Making
Money Off Migrants
In Making
Money Off Migrants, Sidney Jones presents a case study of the plight of
the migrant worker. While it focusses on the experience of Indonesian
migrant workers in Malaysia, many of the problems described would be
familiar to migrants in the United States or Germany.
It examines
the stages through which migrants move from recruitment in their
villages, to their travel to a departure point in Indonesia, to arrival
in Malaysia and often to eventual arrest and deportation. The book
concludes with a plea to recognise the importance of protecting the
rights of migrant workers.
Published
jointly by ASIA 2000 Limited, Hong Kong and CAPSTRANS, University of
Wollongong, copies can be ordered from the APMRN Secretarait at:
apmrn@uow.edu.au.
Contemporary
Minority Migration, Education and Ethnicity in China
Until the
1980s the People's Republic of China was largely able to control both
the process of urbanisation and the movement of people. As China has
undergone major socio-economic change such control has proved to be
more difficult. Migration research has become increasingly important,
especially that of labour mobility, but most research has tended to
treat migrants as an ethnically homogeneous group.
This
research set out to analyse the movement of ethnic minorities in
general and to conduct an empirical study of contemporary patterns of
movement of three very different ethnic minority groups
ÑMongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs.
The key
findings were:
- that
minorities appear to have started to move more recently than Han
Chinese;
- there is
wide variation in the patterns and outcomes of minority migration;
- source
areas are influenced by education, money, ideas and attitudes of the
migrants as well as by their intermittent or permanent return;
- the
history of interaction between Han and minorities and the nature of
government policies in relation to the administration of areas where
minorities settle is a strong determinant of the outcomes;
- there
are major socio-economic impacts for destination areas in terms of
education, identity, health, employment, housing, welfare and
intercultural relations;
- enclaves
of minority ethnic groups have begun to spring up in large cities and
towns and they act as reservoirs of minority cultures. Such enclaves
often reinforce minority cultures and identity, especially if the
members are excluded from mainstream services as is usually the case
for 'illegal' migrants.
-
This
study by Robyn Iredale, Naran Bilik and Wang Su, in conjuction with Fei
Guo and Caroline Hoy, is to be published by Edward Elgar in February,
2001.
Citizenship
and Migration
In Citizenship
and Migration (Macmillan Press, London, 2000) Stephen Castles and
Alistair Davidson employ an international framework in their
theoretical and ractical research into citizenship, difference and
democracy in the Asia Pacific and western countries.
In
modern democratic societies, citizens are supposed to possess a wide
range of civil, political and social rights, which are balanced by
obligations to community and state. Ideally, citizens belong to one
nation-state, while the nation-state is inclusive of all the people
living on its territory.This has never been a reality.
Discrimination
based on class, gender, ethnicity, race or religion has always resulted
in minority groups being considered incapable of belonging; they are
therefore either denied citizenship or forced to undergo a process of
cultural assimilation.
Many of
those who are granted formal membership of the nation-state do not
receive the rights which should go with this, while porous boundaries
and multiple identities undermine the whole concept of cultural
belonging to a homogeneous nation. Copies are available from bookstores
and libraries.
Ethnicity
and Globalization
This
book of collected essays by Stephen Castles is published by SAGE
(London, 2000) and brings together material from over 30 years of
research on migration. It is situated at the interface of migration,
citizenship and globalization.
The 13
essays in Ethnicity and Gloabalisation trace the growth of
global migration since 1945, showing how it has produced fundamental
economic, social and cultural changes in most parts of the world. Using
techniques of comparative analysis, the book demonstrates the lag
between global migration and policy.
As the
postwar demand for labour outstripped supply, immigration of workers of
various ethnic and social backgrounds was encouraged throughout the
developed West. However, the implantation of new ethnicities on
different soils was neither planned nor managed effectively.
The
later chapters go on to show how globalization and the emergence of
transnational networks have transformed migration since the 1980s,
giving rise to complex flows of labour migrants, refugees, asylum
seekers, highly-skilled personnel and settlers.
The
final part of the book examines the emergence of multicultural
societies and the impact of this on traditional concepts of
citizenship, culture and identity. No other book combines such a broad
coverage of post-1945 developments with a sophisticated global
perspective.
Ethnicity
and Globalization is essential reading for anyone interested in
debates on migration and citizenship. It is available from bookstores
and libraries
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