Contested Borders, Contested Boundaries: The Politics of Labour Migration in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This chapter examines the political economy of labour migration in the region, with a focus on its implications for collective action. It argues that the pivotal role of temporary labour migrants in Southeast Asiaposes intellectual and practical challenges to the way we think about work, mobility and the nature and exercise of labour rights both by individuals and collectively. While temporary labour migration is a serious short-term threat to already weak trade unions in the region, internationally-driven responses to the challenge it presents also offer hope of reinvention and renewal. If even only partially successful, attempts to broaden union constituencies and develop alliances across sectors and national boundaries stand to better equip trade unions to deal not only with temporary labour migration but with the other challenges to organized labour posed by neoliberalism.