International Female Migration and Trafficking Continuum in Asia

Increasingly, this flow of female migrants from developing countries has diverged into the sectors of private care services (PCS) and commercial sexual services (CSS) located in the ‘global cities’. This is mainly to satisfy growing demand of migrant labour by high-income professionals/expatriate communities in cities such as New York, Hong Kong and Manila (Sassen, 1998& 2002).

State policy has also accelerated gendered patterns of migration, as particularly evident in the case of female migration for PCS and CSS. Women with limited employment opportunities in less developed economies are deliberately channelled into particular sectors through a combination of labour migration and immigration policies by governments on both sides. As part of their economic strategy, governments of Asia and Europe with serious labour shortages have encouraged migrant labour use by adopting training schemes to share corporate skills and specific quotas for service sectors jobs such as entertainers and house maids. Equally, governments keen to secure alternative forms of revenue have been drawn to the possibilities of their citizens contributing such labour abroad through massive government promotion of female migratory work (Abella and Abrera-Mangahas, 1995; Wille and Passl, 2001).

From an empirical perspective, two key characteristics can be drawn from a rising trend in female migration in the Asian region: i) fluid and unregulated employment patterns that share features with trafficking in women and girls and ii) the marginalized socioeconomic status of female migrants in terms of gender, class, ethnicity, race and occupation. In the absence of an international instrument providing labour standards for workers in PCS and CSS, female migrant workers are often denied or have limited access to labour benefits and protection (Ramirez-Machado, 2000; Anti-Slavery International, 2003). The vulnerable social status of female migrants in PCS and CSS is further reinforced by discriminatory practices which are grounded on sexist and racist assumptions. A common management practice that determines the treatment of female migrants workers based on nationality rather than educational background or skills is such an example (Yeoh and Huang, 1998).

In legal terms, human trafficking and migrant smuggling are considered two distinctive categories. What differentiates trafficking from smuggling is the element of consent. While an element of force is a major determination of trafficking, the UN Trafficking Protocol (2000) definition stipulates the irrelevance of consent by the trafficked person in determining whether human trafficking has taken place. In contrast, the smuggling of migrants is defined by an element of consent, regardless of the reality that it often takes place in dangerous and degrading conditions (UNODC 2006). Nevertheless, empirical evidence suggests that both undocumented and documented female migrants increasingly find themselves in situations where they are trapped in conditions of trafficking/exploitative migration for limited episodes within their entire migration experience. The narrow scope of legal definitions therefore, has downplayed the fact that smuggled migrants are as equally vulnerable to exploitation as trafficked individuals, while trafficked women are victimized by being stripped of their autonomy.

Our study conducted in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Sri Lanka (Kojima, 2007) further demonstrates two distinctive situations that draw women and girls into trafficking. The first situation is related to high mobility in job placement. Women move from one job to another not only to satisfy their immediate needs but also as the result of the management strategy widely adopted in PCS and CSS. Undocumented migrants who are smuggled into a country without any legal documentation or legitimate visas often experience trafficking during their first job placement or in subsequent employment. In this respect, trafficking episodes tend to be sporadic and spread throughout the overall migration experience.

The second situation which makes women and girls more vulnerable to being trafficked is through bilateral labour migration agreements for female migrants for PCS and CSS. These agreements often mandate women to accept conditions that compromise their basic socioeconomic rights as workers and citizens. This suggests that women who migrate as documented migrants are, in practice, as equally vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by employers and agents as women who are undocumented migrants. Consequently, documented female migrants who lose their legal status as they attempt to fulfil their survival needs are not uncommon. These women become undocumented migrants or worse, they are trafficked into exploitative working conditions.

By placing trafficking on a continuum of the overall migration process, some key theoretical and policy implications can be drawn. Mindful of the significant contribution yielded by economic migration paradigms, emerging issues surrounding female migration for PCS and CSS highlight the need for a theoretical inquiry into how gender relations and individual identity structure migration processes and define the scope of women’s agency, choices and preferences. Growing evidence suggests that international migration processes involving women and girls in care and sex work cannot be accounted for by economic factors alone. Family violence and strong personal aspirations are viable factors that lead women and girls to decide to migrate (Phetsiriseng, 2003; SWAN, 2002) while feelings of deprivation are individual and gendered (Curran and Saguy, 2001). The migration process is further structured by changing gender dynamics within individual households in communities where migration has become established as an acceptable livelihood option.

In this context, a more profound understanding of female migration can be gained through rigorous analysis of the sociological aspect of the coping strategies and vulnerability of women and girls in migration. The migration process is composed of a series of decisions made by the individual concerned. Women and girls who wish to migrate or to extend the migration process are constantly under pressure about whether to accept a new job offer or to remain in their present job. This is where the individuals’ threshold of tolerance is relevant, since it shapes their choices and preferences. Depending on the shifting scope of individual tolerance, women and girls develop different types of coping strategies alongside their own unique understanding of their position and status in the migration process.

Empirical data also suggests that particular decisions made by women and girls contribute to shaping their vulnerability in the migration process. The level of vulnerability changes according to their bargaining capacity. It is also shaped by external factors such as their relationship with employers and colleagues, conditions of employment and forms of resistance, if any. In sum, vulnerability and the tolerance threshold of women and girls, alongside the complexity and dynamics of their self-image, are highly significant because they demonstrate how women and girls undergo trafficking experiences on the continuum of the overall migration process.

Recognizing trafficking as an integral component of female migration for PCS and CSS also poses some serious challenges in policy implementation. It questions the relevance of the victim or criminal framework commonly adopted in migrant screening processes in terms of identification of trafficked victims and in regulations to safeguard participants in official migration schemes. The notion of ‘victimhood’ prominent in present legal measures does not fully reflect the process and context of migration experienced by the women and girls concerned. Consequently, the narrow conditions set forth as proof of victimhood in screening criteria may exclude many women and girls in exploitative migration who deserve legal redress.

In this connection, two key civil society-driven initiatives undertaken in Thailand are noteworthy (with special acknowledgement to the members of the Foundation for Women for sharing this information). First is the amendment of the Trafficking Act (1997) initiated by human rights advocate groups to reflect the practical needs and realities of those who are involved in exploitative migration. The second key development is related to a new strategy that taps into the Domestic Violence Act (2007). Rights advocate groups in Thailand have launched a campaign to promote the use of this new legal framework to promote more timely and effective intervention in reporting and investigating labour exploitation involving migrant domestic workers.

Moving away from the conventional approach that relies on the government’s sole role in protection of migrant domestic workers, this campaign plays a significant role in reporting incidents of violence against domestic workers. By linking the maltreatment of migrant domestic workers with domestic violence, the campaign also attempts to challenge the sociocultural norms that condone gender and ethno-racial discriminatory practices prevailing within households. This is a highly relevant point as violent practices against domestic workers are often under reported as job expectations and rules often applied to migrant domestic workers are commonly drawn from the family virtues and house rules of her employer, thus disguising the abuse of domestic workers (interview with a NGO executive, 2009).

In sum, policy remedies that rely on the establishment of migrant labour law that does not necessarily question the associated cultural valuing mechanism is insufficient for resolving the gender and racial injustice evident in the context of female migration for care and sex work. Shifting away from such a ‘transitional’ strategy, thus, we suggest a transformative policy strategy that is based on a critical inquiry of the social and cultural norms and values that reinforce the institutional practice of disrespect and demeaning treatment of migrant women and girls in these sectors. In this respect, emphasizing the potential of civil society in pursuing social transformation from a women’s rights perspective, the Domestic Violence Act in Thailand promises to break new ground. It calls for the advancement of migrant workers’ status by focusing on revaluing the norms associated with female migration. This strategy also provides new scope in the fight against gender violence in migration by shifting the focus of criticism away from individual men to the masculine structure and associated social practices that justify gender violence. Practitioners in other regions and international agencies could benefit from lessons learnt by the Thai experience.

Yu Kojima acquired her PhD degree from ISS in 2007. Her most recent work and interest includes trafficking/smuggling of Burmese migrant families the into fishery sector in Southern Thailand with particular focus on the agency of child migrants.
References
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