Asylum, Work, and Precarity: Bordering the Asia-Pacific

230 Pages·2018·2.116 MB·English

by  Nicholas Henry (auth.)

CRITICAL STUDIES OF
THE ASIA-PACIFIC
ASYLUM, WORK,
AND PRECARITY
BORDERING
THE ASIA-PACIFIC
Nicholas Henry
Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific
Series editor
Mark Beeson
Political Science and International Relations
University of Western Australia
Crawley, West Australia, Australia
Critical Studies of the Asia Pacific showcases new research and scholarship
on what is arguably the most important region in the world in the twenty-
first century. The rise of China and the continuing strategic importance of
this dynamic economic area to the United States mean that the Asia-Pacific
will remain crucially important to policymakers and scholars alike. The
unifying theme of the series is a desire to publish the best theoretically-
informed, original research on the region. Titles in the series cover the
politics, economics and security of the region, as well as focusing on its
institutional processes, individual countries, issues and leaders.
More information about this series at
http://www.springer.com/series/14940
Nicholas Henry
Asylum, Work,
and Precarity
Bordering the Asia-Pacific
Nicholas Henry
Centre for the Study of Globalisation
and Regionalisation
University of Warwick
Coventry, United Kingdom
Critical Studies of the Asia-Pacific
ISBN 978-3-319-60566-1 ISBN 978-3-319-60567-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60567-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017947192
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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A
cknowledgements
Thanks to all the organisations and individuals who generously gave their
time for interviews and other assistance during my research for this book:
in Bangkok, the staff of the regional and country offices of the United
Nations High Commission for Refugees, the International Organisation
for Migration, the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, the
International Labour Organisation, the Regional Support Office to the
Bali Process, Asylum Access, Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network, Arakan
Project, Migration Working Group, and the Migrant Worker Resource
Centre; in Kuala Lumpur, the staff of the Malaysia Trades Union Congress,
Building Workers’ International, the All Malaysia Estate Staff Union,
CARAM Asia, and the Migrant Worker Resource Centre; in Singapore,
the staff of Transient Workers Count Too; and in Jakarta, the staff of
SUAKA, Lembaga Bantuan Hukum, the ASEAN Secretariat, the Jesuit
Refugee Service (interviewed in Melbourne), and the Human Rights
Working Group.
I would like to acknowledge the support for my research provided by
the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University in
Melbourne, including through a research grant that allowed me to visit
organisations and conduct interviews in Southeast Asia. Thanks to the
efforts of Prof Matthew Clarke as Head of School and all my colleagues in
the academic and administrative staff, I enjoyed a collegial and supportive
working environment for my research. Thanks in particular to Dr. Belinda
Townsend for taking the time to read and provide insightful comments on
early drafts, and to Dr. Chengxin Pan for his useful and supportive advice
v
vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
on my research. Thanks also to the staff of the Deakin International
Liaison Office in Jakarta for help in facilitating interviews.
I am grateful to everyone in the Centre for the Study of Globalisation
and Regionalisation (CSGR) and the Politics and International Studies
(PAIS) department at the University of Warwick for hosting me as a
Visiting Fellow in 2016. Particular thanks to Dr. Alexandra Homolar, who
hosted and supported my visit and seminar presentation through her
leadership of the Speaking International Security at Warwick program;
Dr. André Broome, who hosted me as a Visiting Fellow in his role as
CSGR Director; and Prof Nick Vaughan-Williams who as head of PAIS
made me welcome at Warwick and generously made time to discuss our
shared research interests.
Thanks, in solidarity, to the members of RISE, Beyond Borders,
Anarchist Affinity, and xBorder in Melbourne, for the intellectual rigour
and principled commitment of your work challenging carceral border
regimes, from which I had the privilege of learning.
I would like to acknowledge all the friends and family I have learnt from
and been supported by in the process of writing this book. Thanks to
Alexandra Homolar and André Broome for your friendship and generous
hospitality; Belinda Townsend and Tris Galloway for your encouragement;
and my parents John Henry and Tricia Glensor for all your support.
Above all, my acknowledgement and thanks to Meredith Harris for
your constant support and encouragement in the process of writing this
book, for all the enlightening conversations, and your insightful com-
ments on drafts.
c
ontents
1 I ntroduction 1
2 Border Spaces 13
3 Leaving Home 35
4 Framing Threats 69
5 Screening Migrants 101
6 Carceral Responses 135
7 Producing Precarity 165
8 Conclusion 195
Bibliography 203
Index 223
vii
l t
ist of Ables
Table 3.1 Bilateral Estimates of Migrant Stocks for selected
countries in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, 2015 41
Table 3.2 R efugees and Asylum seekers in selected countries
in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, registered with
UNHCR in 2015 52
ix
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
This book explores the regional coordination and impact of state
responses to irregular migration in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. The
main argument is that regional and international trends of securitisation
and criminalisation of irregular migration—often associated with fram-
ing the issue in terms of migrant smuggling and human trafficking—
have intensified carceral border regimes and produced greater precarity
for migrants. Bilateral and multilateral processes of regional coordina-
tion at multiple levels of government are analysed with a focus on the
impact on asylum seekers and migrant workers arriving or staying in
major destination and transit countries—including Malaysia, Thailand,
Singapore, Indonesia and Australia.
When I began work on the research for this book, I was based in
Melbourne, Australia, where I witnessed the steady escalation of political
discourse framing the movement of asylum seekers by sea as an interna-
tional security and criminal threat. The two major parties of government,
Labor and Liberal, appeared locked into a battle of competitive xenopho-
bia in their public statements about both asylum seekers and migrant
workers, and shared bipartisan commitments to policies of restrictive
labour migration and deterrence of asylum seekers. Policies of asylum
deterrence backed by both major parties are based on arbitrary enforce-
ment of migration borders through intercepting and turning back boats at
sea, mandatory and indefinite detention of asylum seekers, and deporta-
tion without due process.
© The Author(s) 2018 1
N. Henry, Asylum, Work, and Precarity, Critical Studies
of the Asia-Pacific, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-60567-8_1