1995 Global Cultural Diversity Conference Proceedings, Sydney

Public Policy and Diversity - Migration Patterns and Policy
The International Movement of Labour in Asia

Continued from part three

Crisis in Immigration Policy

Contemporary labour migration flows in East Asia are symptomatic of the gradual breaking down of political structures which thirty to forty years ago post-independence leaders found necessary to support the formation of new nation states. Creating or even embellishing national identity was then a paramount concern as new states emerged out of what were previously colonial territories either of western powers or of Japan.

Among these political structures are strict immigration controls to ensure that control over economic resources remained in the hands of the indigenous majority and to maintain in some cases delicate ethnic or racial balances on which political stability depended. What has changed since then is the consequence of successful economic development, bolstered by trade and foreign investments which integrated their economies with the rest of the global economy. Indigenous entrepreneurs are now firmly and confidently established, an increasingly affluent population has become more choosy about jobs, and the women in larger numbers are opting to work outside the home. As a consequence pressures are now being put to bear on established policy on immigration which has heretofore been dominated by concerns over maintaining political stability.

Changes in state policies to accommodate these pressures have been slow in coming. In many instances immigration laws remain hostile to the admission and integration of foreigners. In spite of the fact that their shortage of labour is not merely a cyclical phenomenon but a structural problem and one that is likely to persist over some time, none of the countries, except for Australia and New Zealand, have opened their gates for permanent settlement.

On the contrary, some governments go to extreme lengths to make sure that foreign workers do not develop any associations with the citizens that could lead to legal grounds for permanent immigration. Singapore, for instance, grants foreign maids temporary work permits on condition that they do not marry citizens and requires them to undergo "pregnancy tests" every six months. In all these countries the conditions of employment are often such that there is no question of migrants being joined by their families. They are excluded from any welfare scheme such as social security membership or pension funds, although they are often entitled to compensation for work-related sickness or injuries.

The prospects for significant changes in attitudes to immigration seem to be bleak. There is little doubt that on economic grounds alone the flexibility offered by existing policies (or lack of policy) has been advantageous to the receiving states. In Japan and in Korea the earlier restrictions on the inflow of foreign labour have helped in the rationalization of her economic structure focusing on building comparative advantage in high technology industries while relocating still profitable but labour-intensive industries in other countries.

When shortages of labour hit the non-traded goods and services sectors starting in the late 1980s, the back door for illegals brought in as many workers as these sectors needed. Policy makers are convinced that more liberal immigration policies will not provide this flexibility and the suspicion is strong that they will simply compound the growing cost of sustaining welfare programmes.

How tenable these state policies on immigration are over the long term would appear to depend on at least three important developments. One is how quickly serious social problems will arise with the continuing social exclusion of migrant workers in these countries. This may be resolved by taking the option of settling for slower growth and even a decline in standards of living; or by shifting to policies that encourage more permanent settlement.

Another is how the dependence on foreign labour would diminish or grow with the progressive shift to services and the de-industrialisation of these economies. Little yet is known about the impact of such trends would have on the demand for foreign labour. And thirdly, whether or not rising economic prosperity would significantly change social attitudes to menial jobs which no society has yet managed to do with machines.

Finally, the South-East Asian countries have long histories of accepting other peoples in their midst and they have undoubtedly been better off for it. Poor migrants from China and India and not so poor counterparts from the west have provided the kind of visionary entrepreneurship, artistic creativity, and innovativeness that partly explains the dynamism of the region. There is a need to review this experience and draw lessons from them as these states address the challenge of adapting their immigration and integration policies to their new position in the global community.

Table 1: Average annual labour force growth rates

	198 090	19 902 000	200 010
Japan and NIEs
Japan	0.9	0.4	0.4
Singapore	1.6	0.6	0.3
South Korea	2.8	1.8	1.1
Taiwan	3.5	1.7	0.7
China	2.4	1.2	0.9
South East Asia	2.7	2.4	1.7
Indonesia
Malaysia	3.2	2.9	2.6
Philippines	2.8	2.8	2.6
Thailand	2.5	1.8	1.0
South Asia	3.5	3.6	3.3
Bangladesh
India	2.2	2.1	2.0
Nepal	2.4	2.7	2.5
Pakistan	3.9	3.7	4.3

Table 2: Japan - labour shortage among different size firms based on labour sufficiency rate

	All firms	1000 and over	500 to 999	300 to 499	100 to 299	30 to 99	5 to 29
1983	25.5	20.3	23.1	24.7	25.9	27.1	25.0
1984	25.6	21.0	24.7	25.1	26.1	27.2	25.1
1985	26.9	28.1	24.7	26.5	27.3	28.7	26.1
1986	27.8	20.3	25.8	26.3	28.7	29.7	27.2
1987	28.4	29.6	28.2	27.5	29.5	29.8	27.6
1988	23.3	33.6	22.4	21.7	22.9	23.4	23.1
1989	19.8	39.5	17.8	18.9	19.0	19.4	19.5
1990	17.7	31.1	17.0	16.2	16.7	16.9	17.7
1991	17.5	27.4	17.2	16.2	16.7	17.0	17.8
1992	20.6	32.3	17.9	19.1	19.6	20.4	20.7

Sources:

Ministry of Labour
Labour sufficiency rate = number of people placed in regular and seasonal jobs/number of regular and seasonal job openings X 100. Part-time workers are not included.

Table 3: Arrivals of foreign temporary workers in Japan, 1980-88

Purpose of entry	1980	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988
Businessmen	7 240	6 887	6 826	6 773	6 177	6 141
Academics	277	336	310	333	350	405
Entertainers	59 693	32 952	34 569	44 989	59 693	71 062
Technicians	20	10	12	18	24	19
Skilled workers	475	511	498	552	465	480
Special visa	1 706	2 079	1 778	2 071	2 474	3 336

Source:

Sekine, 1990

Table 4: Recorded flows of labour migrants 1985-88

	1985	1986	1987	1988
To Singapore
From -
Indonesia	1 359	1 491	1 705	3 503
Malaysia
Philippines	10 047	15 093	15 093	8 221
Thailand	3 387	3 871	3 629
To Malaysia
From -
Indonesia	1 617	190	139	102
Philippines	477	1 680	2 431	1 637
Thailand	1 861	1 271	705
To Brunei
From -
Indonesia	156	59	76	288
Philippines	3 292	4 643	4 737	5 528
Thailand	1 160	3 569	2 904	6 792

Sources:

Ministries of Labour/Manpower

Table 5: Migrants' remittances received, by countries of origin (in million US dollar)

Country	1981	1982	1983	1984	1985	1986	1987	1988
Pakistan	2 224	2 886	2 737	2 446	2 595	2 278	2 808	n/a
India	2 322	2 514	2 561	2 508	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Bangladesh	382	531	670	501	502	751	748	750
Sri Lanka	195	289	294	301	292	326	345	315
Philippines	546	810	944	659	687	690	792	857
Thailand	475	618	846	894	878	798	863	936
Indonesia	33	48	53	58	39	26	22	n/a
Republic Korea	1 673	1 939	1 663	1 490	1 241	1 077	1 021	1 006

Table 6: Annual flows of migrant labour from Asia to Middle East

	Asia	Pakistan	South-East	Bangladesh
1976	152 500	71.6	24.5	3.9
1977	311 000	66.9	26.4	6.7
1978	359 500	55.13	36.6	8.6
1979	424 000	45.5	42.7	11.8
1980	526 700	34.8	54.1	11.1
1981	688 400	31.8	52.0	16.2
1982	968 700	37.3	49.1	13.6
1983	986 800	34.8	53.8	11.4
1984	843 000	34.6	53.2	12.2
1985	793 000	30.6	55.1	14.3
1986	683 500	24.5	58.1	17.4
1987	740 200	25.4	57.7	16.9
1988	809 200	30.5	53.7	15.8
1989	795 900	27.2	50.7	22.1

Table 7: Republic of Korea, wage structure by size of firm (biggest firms = 100)

Enterprise	1980	1985	1987	1990	1992
10 - 29	93	90	88	74	73
30 - 99	99	91	91	77	78
100 - 299	97	90	90	81	83
300 - 499	102	99	98	94	90
500 +	100	100	100	100	100

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