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Need to manage labour migration in South Asian countries
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05 April 2012
Observer Research Foundation, Chennai Chapter, organised an interactive panel discussion on the issue of 'Labour Migration in South Asia' on March 2, 2012. It was initiated by Dr Bernard Sami, Professor and Head, Department of History, Loyola College., who said "migration is not static, rather dynamic", pointing out that approximately 192 million people of Indian origin are living in over 110 countries across the world.
There are three types of migration from and within South Asia, comprising permanent migration to Europe, Australia and North America, contract labour migration to the Gulf and South-East Asia and cross-border or seasonal migration within the region. Across South Asia, most of the migrant labour is engaged in the construction industry, Dr. Sami said.
Talking about the work performed by this type of migrant labour as '3-D work' -- dirty, dangerous and difficult, he said the labourers are mostly illiterate or semi-illiterate. He said the term '3-D work' should not be confused with the dignity of labour involved in any work, but only related to the harshness of the circumstances. In most of the countries in South Asia, there is a decreasing concern over labour rights as trade unions are usually taken as trouble-shooters, and receive negligible attention from the authorities concerned. However, these countries have numerous legal regimes like the Emigration Ordinance of Bangladesh, Pakistan and other countries, but these rules and regulations are mostly on paper rather than in practice .Most developing countries face a dilemma between promotion of overseas employment and protection of their workers abroad. The pattern followed in the migrant labour sector starts from the origin country, to transit country, then to the destination country and finally they return to the origin country.
The labour-sending countries in Asia are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka. Countries like India, Pakistan and Thailand are both labour-sending and labour-receiving countries. The contract labour migrants face numerous problems in both sending and receiving countries compared to skilled workers and professionals, who move with foreign capital and enjoy more bargaining power. Migrant workers are often subject to neglect, harassment and violation of rights. They indirectly become pawns in the hands of agents. These agents at times seize their personal documents, substitute the contracts, or place them in a job that is least suited to the worker's interest.
There is an absence of national policy on migration, ineffective laws and lack of multilateral and bilateral agreements between the countries. In the receiving countries, embassies of the South Asian countries are not proactive in dealing with complaints or are ill-equipped to handle them because of a lack of adequate staff and resources. The more serious issue involves undocumented or irregular migration between various countries. Most data covers only officially recorded flows. These are grossly incomplete because of the large-scale incidence of irregular migration. Also, hardly any country collects information on returning migrant workers. The quality of available data is often poor. The data collected cannot be compared over time because of changing definitions and coverage. "What was true yesterday may not be true today," said Dr Sami. He referred to the issue of women migration and said that "feminisation of migration is taking place in all countries except in South Asia. Sri Lanka is the only country in South Asia where female migration is allowed and female labourers constitute the bulk of those going abroad."
Dr Sami praised the approach adopted by the Government of Philippines in this regard. It encourages overseas employment at all levels and skills. Compared with South Asian countries, Philippines have adopted a relatively active policy to protect its workforce abroad. The enactment of the Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipino Act of 1995 serves to protect the interests and promote the welfare of over six-million Filipinos working in approximately 140 countries around the world. He said that the Global Forum on Migration and Development brings the sending and receiving country under one umbrella, and creates a triple-win situation, i.e. for the sending country, for the receiving country and for the migrants. He then mentioned about the Colombo Conference process (regional consultative process on the management of overseas employment and contractual labour for countries of origins in Asia) held in Abu Dhabi (2008) talked about migration of labour with dignity. He added that the remittances brought in the country by these workers account for a high percentage of foreign currency.
Other studies on South Asia show that India is the largest remittance receiving country in the world, with Pakistan being the fifth and Bangladesh not far behind at the seventh place.
Human history itself is a history of migration, Dr Sami said. He concluded by saying that since it was impossible to stop migration of labour, the authorities concerned should rather focus on managing migration.
(This report is prepared by Priya Arora, I Year MSc, Madras School of Economics, Chennai)
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