International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)

210.

Panel Title             : ILLEGAL BUT LICIT TRANSNATIONAL FLOWS AND PERMISSIVE POLITIES IN ASIA

Institution             : International Institute for Asian Studies

Convener              : Barak Kalir

Chair                      : Willem Van Schendel

Discussant           : Mario Rutten

Panel Abstract    :

This panel is based on a research programme that analyses forms of globalisation-from-below, transnational practices that are considered acceptable (licit) by participants but are often illegal in a formal sense. The panel is built around four projects examining transnational flows across regions of Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, China, Israel, Dubai), focussing on participants' identities and notions of (il) legality and (il) licitness. It seeks to develop a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to them, and to highlight new methods for studying transnational practices. Our panel will focus on flows of people and goods across international borders movements that are not allowed by states but are not 'organised crime' either. States declare these practices illegal and yet states themselves are often involved in them. Most studies of international flows have been framed in the conceptual and material context of the modern nation state. Consciously and unconsciously, most social science takes state territories as its natural units. We adopt a perspective that privileges participants in international activities, leading us to different understandings of processes of transnational movement. We focus especially on a theme that is rarely highlighted in the study of transnational practices: the interface of legality and illegality. It is important in a discussion of 'legal' and 'illegal' to introduce the distinction 'licit' and 'illicit'. Since there is no legitimate and sovereign legal authority at the global level, the law almost always refers to the domestic sphere, to states. But when we shift our nomenclature to the distinction between 'licit' and 'illicit', we refer less to state law than to social perceptions of activities defined as criminal. It is this confrontation between perspectives that forms the core of our research programme: multiple legal perspectives interact with various perceptions of licitness in all transnational practices.

Participants         :

Bindhulakshmi Pattadath

Paper Title            : Moving Between Legal Systems: South Indian Women as Domestic Workers in

                                 Dubai.

Abstract                :

Domestic workers who cross national boundaries in search of employment form a category of transnational migrants of special interest in studying (il) legal-(il) licit linkages. They have to deal with sometimes contradictory legal systems and also occupy an ambivalent position as non-family members working in households. Usually they are not covered by labour law, and their identities, labour relations and social insecurity are all framed in highly personal relations in the domestic sphere. Migrant domestic labour is also a sensitive issue as it concerns women whose employment is a source of tension and ambivalence in both sending and receiving countries. Indian women working as domestics in Dubai deal with the multiple legal perspectives and normative perceptions. The project focuses on their trajectory from home to work and back, investigating in particular how they move in and out of legality/illegality, both during their life cycle and because labour migration is variously legalised by India and Dubai over time. Research will be conducted in South India (Kerala) and Dubai, which has long-standing trade relations with Kerala. Dubai now has a labour force that is over 90% foreign (Indians are the largest group), and Indian domestics work for compatriots, Dubai families and other foreigners. The project investigates the living strategies of poor Keralite women in transnational movement with a view to understanding (il) legal-(il) licit linkages in transnational life cycles.

Sarfraz Khan

Paper Title            : De-legitimising borderland practices in Pakistan

Abstract                :

The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan is notoriously porous because the borderlands are so called 'tribal areas' where the Pakistani state has delegated much of its authority to 'tribal' institutions. Today international bodies fighting transnational militancy and smuggling consider this porosity a problem because it makes these areas difficult to control. And yet, the absence of state responsibility has been convenient for many since the Afghan wars of the 1980s: refugees, Islamic missionary movements, foreign states supporting the Afghan resistance, journalists, relief agencies, labour migrants and entrepreneurs in the war economy based on the illegal trade in arms, drugs, electronics and other commodities. Many of these activities, although 'illegal' according to Pakistani law, have been allowed as licit 'tribal' practices and traditions. In the current situation, however, the states of Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as international organisations, prefer more efficient state control. Practices that used to be permitted as 'tribal' now are discouraged and/or disputed as illegal.

Barak Kalir

Paper Title            : Labour Migration Between China And Israel

Anstract                :

Playing the system Chinese migrants recruited to work in Israel under legal contracts are the focus of this project. Once arrived, these migrants often find that the contracts are not adhered to, and hence they are faced with a situation of illegality. On the other hand, many of them also seek to transfer to other employers because there are many better-paying illegal jobs on offer in Israel. Despite their illegal status, they are usually allowed to continue working, even for long periods of time. The main purpose of this project is to find out under which regimes of illegality/licitness the migrants find themselves at various stages of their migration, which dangers and risks these regimes imply, how these regimes are maintained and how the migrants play the system. Our hypothesis is that these Chinese migrants as well as their labour brokers, employers and the Israeli and Chinese states benefit from maintaining illegal employment, and that it is the permissiveness of Israeli labour policy as well as Chinese official discourse on labour exports that allow this particular combination of the legal, the illegal and the licit to persist in transnational state-sponsored labour migration.

Malini Sur

Paper Title            : Unauthorised Mass Migration from Bangladesh To India.

Abstract                :

According to Indian state officials, more than 20 million Bangladeshis are now living illegally in India. This huge diaspora of mostly extremely poor labour migrants has created political problems (anti foreigner movements and pogroms, mass deportations, conflicts between India and Bangladesh) as well as economic benefits for both the Indian and Bangladeshi economies. In fact, it is hard to speak of national economies when there is a constant movement of people and remittances across open borders. This project looks at the changing patterns of legality/licitness in these flows. Migration was legal until 1952 and illegal afterwards, although India and Bangladesh decided to disregard illegal migration before 1971. Since then, a discourse has developed in India in which migrants are depicted as infiltrators, even foot soldiers of a 'demographic attack' from Bangladesh. Meanwhile Bangladesh officials maintain that there are no illegal Bangladeshis in India at all. This legal conflict stands in sharp contrast with a discourse of licitness, in which labour migrants, their Indian employers and many others maintain that a cross-border labour supply is good for development. They hold that de-legitimising migration is counterproductive and they reject the 'coerced identity' of infiltrators. This project focuses on networks of poor Bangladeshi migrants in Northeast India, their labour strategies in situations of extreme insecurity, their changing notions of licitness, and the transnational identities they have constructed.