Understanding Historical and Contemporary Labor Migration Patterns and Processes in Southeast Asia

Abstract

From a temporal viewpoint, current labor migration movements in Southeast Asia typically replicate past foreign labor migrations, while labor processes continue to mirror the significance of political-economic relationships in the region. Historically, international labor migration in Southeast Asia is best understood from the perspective of the region's natural resources, demographic situation, and incorporation into the global economy. European imperialism after the 1870s, and the growth of the Atlantic economy were consistent with capitalist expansion and colonization of Southeast Asian states. Subsequently, these states became suppliers of mineral and other natural resources, and were also transformed by substantial waves of labor immigration, primarily from China and India. It is commonly assumed that the Asian migrants comprised only men, who journeyed either as forced or indentured workers to toil in Southeast Asia. This supposition ignores the migration of free men and women into the region. Furthermore, a majority of historians have also taken for granted that Asian migrations, like the Atlantic migrations, ended in 1914, following the onset of World War One. In fact Asian "colonial" migrations continued into the 1940s and also afterwards.