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The Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community on Migrant Labor on the Thai-Malaysian Border

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The Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community on Migrant Labor on the Thai-Malaysian Border The Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community on Migrant Labor on the Thai-Malaysian Border The Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community on Migrant Labor on the Thai- Malaysian Border Dr. Sirinya Siriyanun College of Innovation and Management, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University [email protected], [email protected] production in an integrated economy tends to concentrate Abstract— The advent of the ASEAN Economic Community in the least developed country. In the case of the AEC, (hereafter, AEC) in 2015 heralded a new era of economic production instead concentrates in relatively developed integration in Southeast Asia. The AEC’s most ambitious measure, countries with industrial infrastructure and effective cross- and the measure which had the most immediate and dramatic impact on the region’s economy, was the single market. The goal border logistics and makes use of labor from of the single market was to reduce tariffs on trade between underdeveloped countries within the single economy. ASEAN countries to as close to zero as possible in order to create an integrated market and production base spanning the entire II. INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIVITY AND CROSS-BORDER LOGISTICS IN ASEAN region. On the Thai-Malaysian border, this created a THAILAND AND MALAYSIA unique situation. Thailand and Malaysia are countries with a similar level of economic development, and as such, cross-border A major concern of the AEC is improving connectivity labor migration between the two seems unlikely. However, as the between ASEAN member states. This is particularly a AEC incorporates the entirety rather than just Thailand and concern on the mainland, where most countries share Malaysia, labor migration on the Thai-Malaysian border does not borders with at least two other ASEAN members. Thailand only involve nationals of Thailand and Malaysia, but nationals of has four land borders with Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia and all AEC countries as well. The result is that many of the migrants Malaysia, all of which are ASEAN states. Malaysia has land who cross the Thai-Malaysian border for the purpose of work, as well as the migrant laborers employed in border economic zones, borders with Thailand and Indonesia and is connected by are from relatively underdeveloped ASEAN countries such as causeway with the ASEAN island nation of Singapore. In Cambodia and Myanmar rather than Thailand and Malaysia. short, Thailand is perfectly positioned to be the hub of the ASEAN mainland, while Malaysia serves as a gateway Index Terms—Migrant labor, ASEAN Economic Community, between the mainland and the ASEAN archipelago. Thailand, Malaysia The development of the AEC has turned the development of the Asia Highway Network (hereafter, AHN) a priority in I. INTRODUCTION ASEAN states. The AHN is a continental system of In theory, the advent of the AEC should increase both superhighways intended to connect the entirety of the Asian trade and labor migration between Thailand and Malaysia. continent. Of the eight major routes of the AHN, three, AH1, This is because economic integration tends to concentrate AH2, and AH3, run through Thailand, and one, AH2, runs manufacturing in the least developed economies in a region through Malaysia as well. Routes AH10 to AH29 are located [1]. However, Thailand and Malaysia present a unique entirely within the ASEAN region. ASEAN has adopted the situation for two reasons. The first is that the two countries AHN project as a major spur to regional integration, and has have relatively comparable economies. As such, there is little established an offshoot project, the ASEAN Highway if any reason for a Thai national to migrate to Malaysia for Network, connecting various urban centers in Southeast Asia the purpose of labor, or for a Malaysian national to migrate as AH100 to AH299 [3]. For the sake of the present study, to Thailand for the same purpose. In addition, while the AEC AH2 is the most important highway, as it traverses the Thai- purports to create a single market in the ASEAN region, it Malaysian border. This highway begins in Denpasar, also allows countries to opt out of regulations that they find Indonesia, and ends in Khosravi, Iran. inconvenient [2]. As such, it is not guaranteed, and indeed is Thailand is also part of the Greater Mekong Subregion somewhat unlikely that the participants in cross-border (hereafter, GMS), an organization of the countries through labor migration between Thailand and Malaysia would be which the Mekong River runs. This consists of the ASEAN either Thai or Malaysian nationals. states Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam, as Instead of Thai and Malaysian nationals, the participants well as the non-ASEAN state China. GMS is working to in labor migration on the Thai-Malaysian border are establish three “economic corridors” to facilitate trade primarily nationals of the less wealthy ASEAN countries such between its member states. These are the North-South as Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar. This contradicts the Economic Corridor, running from Bangkok, Thailand to earlier theory of John Cameron Taylor that industrial 1 The Impact of the ASEAN Economic Community on Migrant Labor on the Thai-Malaysian Border Kunming, China; the East-West Economic Corridor, running in Perlis State. This Industrial Estate occupies 47.3 hectares from Da Nang, Vietnam, to Yangon, Burma; and the of land. It is not the only Industrial Estate in Perlis State, but Southern Economic Corridor, connecting Dawei, Myanmar, it is the largest and the only one located adjacent to the Thai to several termini in Laos, Cambodia, and southern Vietnam. border. It is an established and active facility, currently As in ASEAN and the Asia Highway network, Thailand is the enjoying a 100% occupancy rate [7]. Because of Perlis State’s most centrally located state in GMS, and all three of GMS’s small size, the state does not contain any administrative economic corridors run through Thailand. A proposed subdivisions, and as such, any theoretical SEZ would have to extension would add a transport corridor from Bangkok to be created from either the entire state or from a newly- Songkhla and Narathiwat on the Thai-Malaysian border, thus established administrative division. allowing Malaysia greater access to the economic networks The second Malaysian Industrial Estate is the Rantau of GMS [4]. Panjang Industrial Estate, located in the town of the same name in Pasir Mas District in Kelantan State. This is also an established and successful Industrial Estate, and has become III. INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE THAI-MALAYSIAN BORDER one of Malaysia’s main shipbuilding centers. The Kelantan Both the Thai and Malaysian governments have significant State Government recently proved an expansion of the plans for the development of their border regions, as well as estate, adding 100 hectares to the currently-existing area, all significant existing infrastructure from past development of which is to be used for shipbuilding [8]. plans. On the Thai side of the border, this includes two In addition to these two Industrial Estates, the Thai- Special Economic Zones (hereafter, SEZ) in Songkhla and Malaysian border is also the site of one planned SEZ, the Narathiwat Provinces. On the Malaysian side, it includes Kota Perdana Special Business Economic Zone, located in the Industrial Estates in Perlis and Kelantan States, as well as a town of Bukit Kayu Hitam in Kedah State, opposite the planned SEZ in Kedah State. Dannok Border Crossing in Thailand. This will be a relatively The first of the Thai SEZs is the Sadao SEZ in Songkhla small SEZ, covering 17 square kilometers in Bukit Kayu Province. This SEZ is currently under development and Hitam. It will consist of an Industrial Zone, a commercial consists of the four subdistricts of Sadao District that district, and an Inland Container Depot. Like the Sadao SEZ connect to the Thai-Malaysian border. Among these on the opposite side of the border, it will lie along AH2 [9]. subdistricts there are two border crossings, in Padang Besar Subdistrict and Samnak Kham Subdistrict. In addition, an Industrial Estate is under construction in Samnak Kham IV. CONCLUSIONS Subdistrict [5]. The Dannok Border Crossing in Samnak Kham The Thai government, the Malaysian government, and Subdistrict is the largest and most important border crossing ASEAN have spent considerable money attempting to between Thailand and Malaysia, as it connects to the large improve both highway infrastructure and industrial facilities and prominent Kedah State in Malaysia, and it does not along the Thai-Malaysian border. The manner in which these suffer from the political problems afflicting Narathiwat projects will change the nature of labor migration and Province to the east. In addition, it lies along AH2. border trade between Thailand and Burma has yet to be The Narathiwat SEZ is Thailand’s second SEZ on the border determined. However, past studies of economic integration with Malaysia. It consists of five non-contiguous subdistricts from Europe and North America are of limited utility given in five separate districts of Narathiwat province. Three of ASEAN’s unique economic condition. these are the province’s three border crossings, located at The most important factor to consider when studying Chehe Subdistrict in Tak Bai District, Su-Ngai Kolok ASEAN’s economic integration is the presence of a relatively Subdistrict in Su-Ngai Kolok District, and Lochut Subdistrict large number of countries within the AEC. While NAFTA in in Waeng District. The Industrial Estate is located at La Han North America only has three countries, ASEAN has ten. In Subdistrict in Yi-Ngo District and Kok Kien Subdistrict in this manner, ASEAN is more comparable to the EU, which Muang Narathiwat District [6]. All three border crossings has twenty-eight countries, most of which are considerably connect to Kelantan State in Malaysia. AH18, a minor route smaller than the average ASEAN country.
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