Labour Crossings in Southeast Asia: Linking Historical and Contemporary Labour Migration

Abstract

Southeast Asia was, and continues to be, a major destination of mass long-distance labor migrations. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries labor migration from China and India to the region was a defining feature of Asian globalization. Asian migration also approximated European transatlantic migration; it was consistent with the development of export production and industrialization in Europe and impacted on Southeast Asian economies and societies. Migration was largely unrestricted and led to settlement by immigrant communities and the creation of plural societies in colonial territories. Since the 1980s Southeast Asia has re-emerged as a major player in global migration movements and the scale, diversity and significance of migration flows has grown exponentially. The people who now cross international borders move mainly for economic reasons, or are forced to move for a variety of reasons, including displacement by wars. In the main Southeast Asian destination countries—Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand—foreign workers comprise between 15-30 percent of the labor force and their share is rising. Contemporary flows also comprise illegal movements and Southeast Asian states are striving to control their frontiers through evolving border strategies.