The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) Migration Network has published a second book. “Settling down: the struggles of migrant workers to adapt” brings together stories and analyses of migrant workers from six different countries in Asia Pacific. The different experiences bring to the surface not only the hardship but also the ingenuity of migrants and the hospitality of host societies.
Fr Benny Juliawan SJ, JCAP Social Apostolate Secretary and the book’s editor, says that integrating migrant workers either in the destination or home country is an important area of research that offers a window into interactions between diverse groups of people in a complex migratory setting.
In the book’s introduction, he explains that the term “migrant worker” conveys a sense of mobility which disguises the fact that many of them actually spend most of their time being grounded in one locality, either in the country of destination or in the home country when they return.
In the countries of destination, a large number of migrant workers continuously extend their stay through either regular or irregular means. Their continuous presence in the country makes them practically members of the population, even if only temporarily, with all the consequences.
“Integration in host societies typically revolves around the issues of equality of treatment, access to public services, fair and decent working and living conditions and social cohesion,” shares Fr Juliawan, who also coordinated the JCAP Migration Network for four years until December 2017.
According to him, many countries adopt a different set of laws to regulate migrant workers that provide fewer benefits than those afforded by standard labour laws. “The migrants’ nationality and immigration status make them prone to discrimination, abuse and racism,” he added.
Then, when they return to their home countries, as most migrant workers do, they often struggle with reintegrating into society.
“After being away for a long duration of time, going home is not as simple as commuting back from work in the office. It often entails laborious processes of economic, social and cultural reintegration,” said Fr Juliawan.
The reintegration of returning migrants poses a different kind of issue. Family reunion is a big concern in cases where family members have lived separately for an extended period of time. Families often have to pay the cost in the form of separation, infidelity, absent parenting and other forms of mental disorder associated with dislocation. Women in particular may face negative community attitudes when returning. They may have appropriated skills, lifestyles, values and worldviews of their host societies, which are not always in harmony with the more traditional values of their home towns and villages.
Many people also return in vulnerable situations: people living with a disability or other serious injury as a result of migration, people living with HIV/AIDS, victims of trafficking or other forms of exploitation and people who experience negative migration outcomes or experience involuntary early return (deportation). On top of this, returning migrants are likely to face unemployment or economic hardship with serious implications for their families.
What does repatriation actually mean for migrant workers? How do they adjust to the changing social, economic and cultural context? What are the available mechanisms to seek redress? The book tries to delve into these questions as well in the analyses it offers of migrant worker struggles in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Fr Juliawan hopes that this book will help illumine policy makers as well as civil society groups in understanding this part of the migration story.
Download the book here.
In 2016, the JCAP network published its first book, “Left-Behind Children and the Idea of the Family”, which focuses on what happens to children who are left behind by their migrant worker parents. Read about the book here.