by Stefan Rother
Piper, Nicola; Rother, Stefan (2011): Transnational Inequalities, Transnational Responses: The Politicization of Migrant Rights in Asia. In: Rehbein, Boike (ed.): Globalization and Inequality in Emerging Societies: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 235–255.
In this chapter, we explore processes which cause and result in inequality from the vantage point of social justice... more
In this chapter, we explore processes which cause and result in inequality from the vantage point of social justice organizations, by which we refer to organizations involved in the struggle for migrant workers’ rights. In other words, we analyze inequality through the activism by those collective organizations whose raison d’être it is to achieve greater social justice for migrants. In this sense, we establish a link between justice and equality because ‘(n)otions of justice require knowledge of processes of inequality … and activists’ personal involvement in attempting to transform them’ (Routledge and Cumbers 2009, p. 19). However, instead of analyzing individual advocates or single migrant rights organizations, we discuss political activists’ involvement in the struggle for migrants’ rights from the perspective of transnational activism. We do so in order to explore the effects of organizational networks on addressing inequality as the cause and result of migration. We argue that it is through such transnational responses that migrants react innovatively to their socioeconomic marginalization and multiple inequalities at both ends of the migration chain. This is borne out empirically by the networks spanning origin and destination countries in Asia which have sprung up in the last two decades.
These networks and their constituent member organizations engage in the politicization of migrants’ grievances and inequalities. By ‘politicization’ we mean the articulation or framing of such inequalities as an issue of rights as per the slogan ‘migrant rights are human rights’. Politicization also goes way beyond the mere ‘blaming’ of these inequalities; many organizations actively participate in the political process, be it through consultations or the formation of party chapters or trade unions. Many of these formations are transnational in character, and the network structure provides them with an opportunity for exchange and support. It is, therefore, through the network form that these organizations address the imbalance of the current discourse and practice in migration policy on the part of origin and destination countries. Governments tend to treat migration predominantly as an issue of population or labor control without giving due concerns to rights protection. The latter could be provided by developing a stronger rights-based approach to migration policy. The push for this is coming from transnational networks in the form of ‘rights claims’, demanding greater justice for migrants.
In our exploration of the organizational dimensions involved in responding to inequality experienced by migrants and their effects on transnational networking, we focus on the following three aspects: 1. inequalities in, or owing to, the policies of the sending countries; 2. inequalities in the receiving country; and 3. inequalities among migrants themselves. These inequalities are inherently transnational in nature, since, to name one example, the different levels of service and protection offered by sending countries may affect the migrant in the preparation stage at home as well as during his or her stay in the host country – and even after return. While the migrants may encounter inequalities in specific places, such places form part of a broader transnational social and political space that transcends the container model of the nation state (Rother 2009d). We argue that these transnational inequalities are being counteracted by the formation of transnational networks which function as a space for empowerment and agency. In doing so, however, new forms of inequality may emerge.
Empirically, our discussion draws on the migration experience of several major migrant sending and destination countries in Asia (that is, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, SAR) as well as primary research conducted on three regional networks from their headquarter (or ‘nodal’) locations (Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Hong Kong). The chapter is structured as follows: first, we will outline the aforementioned three aspects, or levels, of inequality caused by, or relating to, temporary contract labor migration, the dominant form of ‘legal’ migration in the region in question. In the second part, we will give a brief theoretical background on existing research on activist networks. In the third and main part, we will discuss how these organizational responses respond to inequalities of migrants and how this may lead to new inequalities, by introducing three examples of transnational migrant networks: the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB), the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and the Coordination of Action Research on AIDS and Mobility in Asia (CARAM Asia).
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