Part 1

• Refugee Journeys in Southeast Asia - Rohingya’s Travails Miriam Jaehn Kyoto University

  In the presentation, I argue for the conceptualization of refugee journeys as ‘travail’ - journeys of suffering (trauma), forced im-mobilities (displacement), and labour. The concept is born out of over one year of ethnographic fieldwork for my dissertation. It demonstrates how flight and labour are intricately connected in refugee journeys across Asia. In specific, I will show how Rohingya’s journeys of escape to Thailand are intricately interlinked with marriage migration and (temporary) debt bondage: Women flee as ‘always/already migrants’ (as brides, wives, and mothers) and men work precarious jobs to remake their families in displacement. In other words, women generally travel as providers of unwaged and reproductive care in displacement whereas men work to facilitate their (future) family’s migration and economic survival. Arriving in Thailand Rohingya continue to face forced im-mobilizations due to their either semi- or undocumented status. Mostly men are at risk of arrest, incarceration, and so-called ‘soft’ deportation. This puts a strain on the whole family as women are coerced to engage in precarious labour outside of their homes and/or make do with entering new debt relations. As such, I conclude, Rohingya’s travails, their journeys of hardship, continue in displacement.

• Prolonged migration trajectory of Vietnamese IT professionals in Japan Aimi Muranaka University of Duisburg-Essen

  Governmental and business sectors in a host society are attracted to international skilled migrants. How-ever, research on how these migrants experience staying in the host society remains scarce. Moreover, few studies on Vietnamese skilled migrants have been conducted until now. Using a framework of migra-tion trajectory, this research investigates how Vietnamese skilled migrants in the IT sector experience and undergo different staying patterns in Japan. The country resists in introducing an official migration policy, but an increasing number of foreign residents, including Vietnamese IT professional, continue staying in Japan. Since 2021, the study conducted fieldworks in Japan and Vietnam. Drawn from over 50 interviews with Vietnamese IT professionals and those who have returned to Vietnam, the findings of this study pre-set different staying patterns among Vietnamese IT professionals. The entrance channel to Japan is heav-ily dominated by student migration, but Vietnamese skilled migrants undergo different and often interest-ed with various staying patterns which shift along with their life stage. Moreover, intersected family, ca-reer, societal and economic factors shape the migrant’s staying patterns. Without a strong interest for a long-term settlement, the study argues that Vietnamese skilled migrants keep staying in Japan, not nec-essarily being “integrated” in the host society.

• Studying, Working, and Exploring Life: Nursing Care Work as a Career Goal or Pathway to Migrate Chika Shinohara St. Andrew’s University Kumiko Tsuchida

  Migrant care workers are highly demanded in the world. Many nursing care workers move from Southeast Asia to Japan where elderly care takers are high in demand. Frequently, the experience of migrant care workers shows “mixed migration.” Some are highly skilled professionals, already certified and experienced in their home countries; others are student interns who migrate first as students who can also work (education and work). A few of them eventually get employed as professional nurses or nursing care workers who are legally allowed to invite their family members to settle together (temporary work and long-term work). Some others arrive without expecting to work as carers; yet, they end up becoming care workers as it is often the only option for divorced migrant women without the local language and other skills to legalize her stay in the host society (marriage, divorce, and work). What kinds of transitions do migrant care workers experience? During their transitions, what challenges do they face? How do the government policies affect or get affected by such changes of migrants? This project explores our interviews, surveys, and observations of migrant care workers from Southeast Asia to Japan. Our fieldwork in the migrants’ home societies and in Japan provides some case stories of care workers and their work-life transitions. We elaborate on such stories from migrants’ own perspectives as well as qualitatively examine migrant categorizations from the employers’ and host society’s points of view. This presentation shows how legal and social conditions, as well as migrants’ (un)skills and legal statuses, play roles in the decisions by migrants and discusses the usefulness and limitations of migrant categorizations.

Part 2

• Alternative development trajectories? A mixed methods analysis of religion as a vector of mobility and education among the Hmong in upland Vietnam Seb Rumsby University of Birmingham

  This paper grapples with the intersections between widespread Hmong Protestant conversion over the past 35 years, migration pathways, educational attainment and economic development indicators. An analysis of Vietnam’s national census data reveals some significant trends which corroborate previous qualitative fieldwork. Firstly, Hmong Protestantism is associated with distinct migration routes down to the Central Highlands or to more remote areas of the Northwest highlands, suggesting an intentional distancing from state influence. Secondly, Hmong Protestants exhibit different rural livelihoods dynamics with regard to crop diversification and household economic practices. Thirdly, while non-Protestant Christians engage to a greater degree in formal education, unschooled Christians have relatively higher levels of literacy. This all points to the salience of what we call ‘alternative routes to development’ among different sectors of the Hmong population in Vietnam, which may be differentiated by both religious and geographical factors.

• Migration and resource conflicts in ruptured landscapes: Cambodia’s Lower Sesan 2 dam Katherine Chandler Sango Mahanty The Australian National University Sopheak Chann

  The Khmer proverb, “Chuss Tuek Krorpuer Loung Luer Khlar” (“In the water is the crocodile, on the land is the tiger”) describes a state of despair in the face of multiple threats. Indigenous Bunong communities used this metaphor to describe their experience of land and water transformations at the Lower Sesan 2 dam (LS2) in Northeast Cambodia. LS2 is one of many hydropower projects across the Mekong basin that contribute to long-term land and water transformations and displacements. For clear reasons, analytical attention in these settings often centres on the struggles of displaced communities. Yet developments like LS2 can also precipitate in-migration by new settlers who come seeking labour opportunities and land, with little research on how such migration intersects the lives of displaced communities.
  Drawing on field research at Cambodia’s Lower Sesan 2 dam, this paper explores how dam-related disruptions have facilitated new forms of frontier-making and mobility that are amplifying land and resource struggles. The dam catalysed a large wave of migration from other parts of Cambodia, with four main ethnic groups now present in the LS2 landscape: Indigenous Bunong, Lao, Cham, and Khmer. Each group’s different historical relations with water, land and the state creates differentiated opportunities and risks within this disrupted landscape. Frictions have consequently emerged between the Indigenous/minority groups displaced by the dam and recent settlers who are intent on claiming land, fish and timber. Our paper will explore how in-migration together with historical and dam-driven violence and displacement are driving novel resource conflicts along ethnic lines.

• Kaum Boro: Circular Migration and Rural Development in Wonogiri Anne-Meike Fechter Eileen May Linda Susilowati The University of Sydney

  Kaum Boro: Circular Migration and Rural Development in Wonogiri
  The tradition of circular migration among the Wonogiri people has deep historical roots, dating back to the eighteenth century when many Javanese migrated beyond Java Island for plantation labour. During the Soeharto era, government transmigration programs aimed at redistributing Indonesia’s population and economic development initiatives in urban centres further fuelled this migration trend. In Wonogiri, Central Java, the largest transmigration event was the Bedol Desa project, with 51 villages relocated to construct the Gajah Mungkur Reservoir. Simultaneously, economic development programs in urban centres involving extensive infrastructure projects absorbed many Javanese workers, resulting in a migration pattern known as seasonal or circular migration, where individuals sought employment opportunities while maintaining ties to their hometowns. Javanese migrants engaging in this activity were then referred to as Kaum Boro, a term now primarily associated with migrant workers from Wonogiri. Over time, migration trends in Wonogiri have evolved, and the intersections in “mixed migration” are now mainly between work and marriage. Although various factors drive migration, many migrants from Wonogiri describe leaving their hometown behind in pursuit of a better life. However, in contrast with their statement, they are often found living in poor-quality conditions. This raises the question: Do migrant workers indeed have a better life? If not, whose life has been improved by this decision to migrate?
  This study examines the socio-economic impacts and dynamics of this migration trend in Wonogiri, drawing data from ethnographic fieldwork in two villages in Wonogiri and migrant destinations in Greater Jakarta. Some qualitative methods, such as observations, interviews, focus group discussions, and photovoice activities, were used to explore the lives of circular migrants from Wonogiri alongside the influence of their social networks and local institutions. The study also provides insight into migrants’ roles in rural life: the development, livelihood, and cultural changes, including gender dynamics in Wonogiri.

• Mobilities in and out of displacement: Strategies for survival Anne-Meike Fechter University of Sussex

  The military coup of February 2021 in Myanmar intensified a long-standing situation of conflict-induced displacement, with a resulting dramatic increase of people seeking shelter away from their hometowns and villages. In this situation, different forms of mobilities become ever more important for people’s immediate survival, and mid-term livelihoods. Our 3-year research project on ‘Protracted displacement economies’ aims to shed light on how translocal and cross-border mobilities matter. We ask how we understand displacement not just as a form of forced migration, but how this category makes invisible other forms of mobility that are fundamentally connected to, but not contained within it. In practice, in the everyday lives of those who have found shelter not too distant from their home villages, day travel via motorbikes to tend fields and gardens can be an economic lifeline. Their displacement also intersects with ‘ordinary’ labour migration, especially across the border to Thailand. Such migration was common practice before the military coup, and some people leave their shelter site in order to re-engage in this practice, especially since borders have become more porous after the Covid-19 closures. Especially among younger people, mobility for education to NGO-maintained schools at the Thai-Myanmar border, in Thailand itself, or further afield becomes an increasingly important strategy to secure a better future. Given the wealth of these movements, our question is how useful the analytical implications of ‘displacement’ are, if such situations themselves become bases or springboards for a host of other forms of mobility.

Abstract