TRANSIT MIGRATION IN ASIA

1
TRANSIT MIGRATION IN ASIA

• by
• Graeme Hugo,
• Federation Fellow
• Professor of Geography and Director of the
  National Centre
• for Social Applications of GIS,
• The University of Adelaide
• Paper presented to Annual Bank Conference on
  Development Economics, Mita Conference Hall,
  Tokyo, Japan
• 29-30 May 2006

2
Outline of Presentation

• Introduction
• Conceptualising Transit Migration in Asia
• Forced Migrants as Transit Migrants in Asia
• South-North Movement and Transit Migration in
  Asia
• The Chinese as Transit Migrants
• Conclusion

3
Reasons for Neglect

• Lack of migration data generally
• Much involves undocumented migration
• Focus on economic and labour migrants

4
Internal Transit Migration

• False dichotomy
• Link with international labour migration
• Indonesian case studies

5
Features of Transit Migration in Asia

• Part of growth of temporary migration
• Transit point distinguished by its way station
  character rather than as a destination
• Its midway to nowhere character
• Key role played by the migration industry
• Often involves movement without documentation

6
Forced Migration and Transit Migration in
AsiaAsia Refugees by Countries of Asylum and
Origin, 1980 to 2004Source UNHCR Statistics
Countries of Origin
Countries of Asylum
7
Migrants from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Cambodia and
Laos living in OECD Countries, 2000 Source
OECD data base
8
Afghanistan Families in Pakistan Source of
Livelihood 2005 Source UNHCR 2005, 24
9
2005 Census of Afghans in Pakistan

• 3,049,268 individuals
• 548,106 families
• Total population of Pakistan 143,500,000

10
Pakistan Location of Self Employed Afghans (),
2005 Source UNHCR 2005, 55
11
Burmese (Myanmar) Refugees in Thailand 2006

• 120,000 in border camps
• 1 million elsewhere

12
Occupational Segregation of Burmese Migrants

• Low skilled domestic services, agriculture,
  factory work, rice mills, fishing
• Labour shortages
• Occupational segregation
• Labour market segmentation

13
Labour Immigration and Labour Market Segmentation
in Thailand
14
Corollaries of Labour Market Segmentation(Massey,
et al. 1993)

• Migration is demand driven
• Migration is structurally entrenched
• Wages held down
• Government intervention limited
• Demand independent of economic vicissitudes

15
Some Involvement of High Skill

• e.g. Exodus of intelligensia from Burma in 1988

16
South African Refugees(Weiner 1993)

• The exodus of Tamils from Sri Lanka to Southern
  India
• Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh after
  Bangladesh was created from East Pakistan
• Burmese Muslims moving to Bangladesh
• Hill Tribe Groups moving from Bangladesh to India
• Other Bangladeshis moving to India
• Tibetans moving to India
• Bengalis moving to Assam
• Nepalis moving to India
• Nepalis moving to Bhutan

17
Australia Unauthorised Arrivals, 1989-90 to
2004-05 Source DIMIA 2002 and 2005a
18
Onshore Unauthorised Boat Arrivals by Country of
Citizenship, 2000-01 to 2004-05 Source DIMIA
2005a, p. 31, 25
Onshore Unauthorised Boat Arrivals by Country of
Citizenship
Note No boat arrivals in 2002-03 and 2004-05
19
Onshore Unauthorised Boat Arrivals by Country of
Citizenship, 2000-01 to 2004-05 Source DIMIA
2005a, p. 31, 25
Protection Visas Claims By Countries or
Territories of Citizenship
20
Staging Points for People Smuggling to Australia
1998-99 Source DIMIA 1999
21
Routes Taken by Iraqi and Sudanese Settlers
Coming to Australia Source Hinsliff 2006
22
South-North Migration and Transit Migration in
AsiaStocks of Asia-Born Persons in OECD Nations
Around 2000Source Dumont and Lemaitre 2005, 31
     
23
The Key Role of the Migration Industry

• In both documented and undocumented migration
• Channels migration into selected transit points
• Stepping off points to OECD countries
• Complex linkages between Asylum Seekers and
  economic migration

24
Asians Using Central and Eastern Europe As
Transit Points

• constitute the only land neighbour to the
  European Union directly accessible from the
  South. As a consequence, they are, and will
  continue to be, a transit point for migrants from
  less developed parts of the world (mainly Asia
  and Africa) heading for countries of the old
  European Union. Having in mind the growing
  migratory potential of developing countries we
  can expect a rise in the scale of transit
  migration in CEE.
• Kaczmarczyk and Okólski (2005)

25
Why CEE and Russia?

• A weakening of the CEE migration infrastructure
  (see also Rybakovski and Ryazantsev 2005) which
  has made it easier for Asians to enter (usually
  as tourists or students) and then overstay.
• The demographic pressures in the CEE countries
  which have been exacerbated by emigration and
  created job opportunities for Asian migrants in
  these countries to earn the funds to pay for
  their entry into the European Union.
• The expanding activities of the migration
  industry in the region which is developing cities
  in the region as transit points for eventual
  migration into the European Union Countries.
• The growing communities of Asians in these
  countries who facilitate transit migration and
  provide the migrants with assistance during their
  period of transit.

26
Thailand has become a major transit country for
Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans
and Nepalese headed to the United States, Canada,
Europe, Korea and Japan. Many of those migrants
wind up as illegal workers in Thailand and
Malaysia. Police estimate that about 1,000
illegal migrants move through Thailand each month
with fake passports and visas arranged in Bangkok
and that 50,000 are in Bangkok at any one
time. Bangkok Post, 22 July 1997
27
The Nexus between Transit Migration and the Sex
Industry

• Key role of Thailand
• Bangkok as the transit point for Thailand and
  neighbouring countries
• Role of migration industry
• Link with people smuggling and trafficking
• Link between transit and sex-work

28
Bangkok as a Transit Point in the International
Sex Industry

• Europe often involving links with sex tourism
  and with former migrants and tourists getting
  commissions and playing a role.
• Malaysia and Singapore often are transit points
  where Thai women work as prostitutes while
  waiting to go to Japan, Taiwan, Australia and
  Europe.
• Hong Kong and Taiwan
• Japan and China
• USA and Canada
• Australia and New Zealand

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Types of Agents(Skrobanek, et al. 1997)

• Local people, often either influential community
  leaders or women who have already experienced
  migration for sex work. They are involved in
  initial recruitment.
• Agents who work for an employment agency and
  located close to major transit points like
  railway stations and bus stations in Bangkok.
  They send girls to work in night clubs and bars
  in return for their first three months wages.
• Agents involved in actually sending women abroad,
  often also former sex workers
• Companies with links to overseas employers of sex
  workers.

30
Legal Transitting New Zealand - Australia

• Trans Tasman Agreement
• Substantial migration of New Zealand citizens to
  Australia
• Substantial migration from Asia-Pacific to New
  Zealand
• Differences in Points Assessment Test
• Qualifying as New Zealand Citizen
• 25.4 percent of New Zealand Citizens in Australia
  foreign-born

31
New Zealand Citizens(a) Present in Australia by
Country of Birth at 30th June 2005 Source
DIMIA 2005b, p. 40
32
The Chinese as Transit Migrants Number of Chinese
Travelling Abroad for Business and Tourism
1981-2003 and Total Number of Outbound Trips from
China, 1997-2004Source Far Eastern Economic
Review, 24 June 2004, p. 30 Asia Times Online,
9 February 2006
33

• One sixth of world population
• 100 million floating workers
• 40 million overseas Chinese
• Yakuza (snakeheads)
• The role of Fujian province

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The Golden Venture Incident 1993

• Public realisation in US of scale of Chinese
  people smuggling
• Crackdown produced proliferation of routes and
  increase in places of transit
• Transit points both within and outside Asia
• Growing significance of Canada, Caribbean and
  Latin America

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Conclusion

• Data issues
• Need to be considered as a distinct phenomenon
• Increasing focus since 9/11 because of security
  dimension (Bali Process)

36
Transit Migration is Likely to Increase in
Significance

• Scale of migration is increasing
• The proliferating migration industry
• The involvement of a wider range of people
• Network extension
• Increasing barriers to migration to OECD and
  Asian high income nations