ASSA/UNESCO Australia Workshop 2006 [ 28-29 November 2006 – UNE]
Workshop Title: MIGRATION CHALLENGES IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Convenors:
Professor Amarjit Kaur (UNE) & Professor Tessa Morris-Suzuki (ANU) –– Convenors, Asia Pacific Migration Research Forum Network
Professor Ian Metcalfe - Deputy Director, Asia Centre, UNE
DESCRIPTION
Overview
One of the biggest challenges facing our region in the 21st century is the large-scale cross-border movement of people. Key issues include international labour migration; migration flows provoked by political instability and natural disasters, other refugee flows, human trafficking and people smuggling. The Workshop will examine these and related security issues and border-management strategies of major states in the region, in the face of intensified transnational economic and social processes and the expanding global governance regime. Specifically, the Workshop will focus on policy responses to migrants and refugees and migration processes at the border and across borders, against the backdrop of four major challenges:
• The regulation of populations and cross-border movements;
• Security and epidemiological surveillance issues;
• International agreements; and
• New norms of global governance developed by regional and international NGOs and other international organisations.
Objectives
The Workshop aims to
• Inform the participants and the wider regional and global audience about the main migration challenges in the Asia-Pacific region
• Contribute at a high level to the debate about globalisation, the cross-border movement of people, and evolving border control regimes at a regional, and from an Asia-Pacific regional perspective
• Provide information to policy makers for future policy development and regional collaboration in the Asia Pacific region
• Provide an input to the Asia Pacific Migration Research Forum Network program (see attachment 1); the Asian Studies Association of Australia’s ‘Asia-Pacific Research Futures Network’ objectives [See http://www.sueztosuva.org.au/index.php]; and the Malaysia and Singapore Society of Australia’s 2006 Colloquium [ see attachment 2]
Significance
The Workshop will expand the body of empirical scholarship about the boundaries of state sovereignty and the state’s capacities to regulate population movements at the border. Given the increasing emphasis that the Asia-Pacific nations place on regional cooperation, as well as the particular cultural and political sensitivities attached to these processes, such analysis is both timely and critical.
National Benefit
The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) in a recent report, Maximising Australia’s Asia Knowledge: Repositioning and Renewal of a National Asset, identified the need to renew scholarship on Asian economies and societies at a time when Australia is seeking to play a greater political and economic role in the region. The ARC’s financial support to the Asia-Pacific Futures Research Network (APFN) for the period 2005-2009 is an indication of the Australian government’s commitment to the Network’s goal ‘to provide stimulus for innovative research that makes links across disciplinary and area boundaries to enhance Australia’s interactions with and knowledge of the Asia Pacific region.’ The proposed Workshop will contribute to the above by advancing knowledge of Asia and strengthening collaborations between Australian and Asian researchers.
TUESDAY 28 NOVEMBER 2006
8:30-9:00 am REGISTRATION
9:00-9:30 am Welcome by Conveners and Opening of Workshop
9:30-10:00 am Peter McColl, Director (DIMA).
‘DIMA engagement in the Asia-Pacific region’
10:00-10:30 am Amarjit Kaur (UNE)
‘Managing Migration of Skilled and Unskilled Workers in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Comparison of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand’
10:30-11:00 am MORNING TEA
11:00-11:30 am Binod Khadria (JNU, India and ARI, NUS)
‘The Movement of Skilled Indian Workers in the Asia-Pacific Region: Mapping Emerging Geo-Economic Contours through a Telescope and a Microscope’
11:30-12:00 pm Aswatini (LIPI, Indonesia)
‘Indonesian labour Migration to Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei’
12:00-12:30 pm GENERAL DISCUSSION
12.30-2:00 pm LUNCH
Panel 2: Governance of Migration and Border Controls: Asia-Pacific trends
Chair: Amarjit Kaur
2:00-2:30 pm Michael Leigh (U. Melbourne)
‘Nation and State in the Asia-Pacific Region’
2:30-3:00 pm Tessa Morris-Suzuki (ANU)
‘Rethinking Regional Migration: Reflections from the East Asian Experience’
3:00-3:30 pm Christine Inglis (RIAP, Sydney)
‘Multiculturalism confronting middle class transnationalism and terrorist concerns’
3:30-4:00 pm AFTERNOON TEA
4:00-4:30 pm GENERAL DISCUSSION
7:00 pm WORKSHOP DINNER
WENESDAY 29 NOVEMBER 2006
Panel 3 : Migrants, Identity and Labour Rights
Chair: Tessa Morris-Suzuki
9:30-10:00 am Michele Ford (U. Sydney) and Lenore Lyons (CAPSTRANS, U. Wollongong)
‘Migrants and Identity at the Borderlands between Riau and Singapore’
10:00-10:30 am Wahyu Susilo (INFID, Indonesia)
‘Migrant Workers and Labour Standards in Southeast Asia’
10:30-11:00 am MORNING TEA
11:00-11:30 am Aegile Fernandez (Tenaganita Malaysia)
‘The state, migrant workers and NGOs: The role of Tenaganita in Malaysia’
11:30-12:00 pm GENERAL DISCUSSION
12.00-1:00 pm LUNCH
Panel 4: Forced Migration and Trafficking in Persons in the Asia-Pacific Region
Chair: Michael Leigh
1:00-1:30 pm Fr. David Holdcroft
‘The Jesuit Refugee Service and Displaced Persons in Southeast Asia’
1:30-2:00 pm Denis Wright (UNE)
‘Forced Migration and Trafficking in South Asia’
2:00-3:30 pm GENERAL DISCUSSION
3:00-3:30 pm AFTERNOON TEA
Panel 5: Security issues in the region
Chair: Howard Brasted
3:30-4:00 pm John Funston (ANU)
‘Southern Thailand: External Intervention and Mediation’
4:00-4:30 pm Nadra Hosen (CCES, Indonesia)
‘Islam and Security Issues in Indonesia’
4:30-5:00 pm Nawawi Bahrudin (INFID, Indonesia)
‘Security Sector Reform and Civilian Supremacy in Indonesia’
5:00-5:30 pm DISCUSSION & CLOSING REMARKS
6:00 pm DINNER
7:30 pm PUBLIC LECTURE
Fr. David Holdcroft
‘The Jesuit Refugee Service and Displaced Persons in Southeast Asia’