As the global financial turmoil deepens governments are becoming more protective of their industries and citizen employment rates. Job rates are not only being propped up by stimulus packages but also by stricter immigration laws. Burmese workers are being turned away from Thailand, Bangladeshi’s from Malaysia and Sri lankan’s from Korea. Both legal and illegal migrant workers from poorer Asian countries that seek employment in more developed Asian nations are now being frowned against.
Earlier this week, Malaysian human Resources Minister Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam called on employers who had received approval to bring in foreign workers but had not done so to drop their plans. The move was in response to his governments announcement that all entry-visas for Bangladeshi workers approved in 2007 and not used were to be canceled immediately. This resulted in visa cancellations of some 55,000 Bangladeshi’s who would have worked in the plantation, agriculture and construction sectors.
The measure to freeze intake of foreign workers to curb unemployment is catching on fast in other Asian nations as well. As economies shrink and factories shut shop employers find it easier to fire migrant workers than locals. Maung Maung, who spoke to the Democratic voice of Burma was working in a factory in Thailand and is going back to Burma in the coming week. He doubts however that there will be a job for him in Burma. “I will have to hold discussion with my family and do my best,” he said. “No one wants to go abroad and leave their families. We went abroad because we faced difficulties and hoped that we would get a job.” About two million migrant workers are expected to loose their jobs in Thailand.
The loss of migrant jobs will not only impact the economy they were working in but also their hometowns. Remittances from foreign labors are expected to fall sharply in places like Kerala in South India where almost 80 percent of the cash inflow is from remittances. According to the World Bank, remittances to home countries stood at around US$283 billion in 2007. Both India and China get around US$30 billion each, and for some countries like the Philippines, Tajikistan, etc, remittances account for a large fraction of national GDP, according to the Economist.
We live in a globalized world, where immigration has become a common phenomenon. There were some 200 million migrants or three percent of the world’s population in 2007. There are approximately 40 million overseas Chinese and Indian’s. Migration is cyclical, during times of growth and prosperity migrants are welcomed to do most of the dirty work – clean drains, drive buses and work on over crowded shop floors. However every time the tide turns, migrants are the first segment to be shunned out.
