BURUH MIGRASI IMISCOE ­-­ MIGRACIŌN LABORAL State regulation of labour migration is confronted with a double paradox. First, RESEARCH while markets require a policy of open borders to ful l demands for migrant workers, the boundaries of citizenship impose some degree of closure to the outside. Second, BURUH MIGRASI while the exclusivity of citizenship requires closed membership, civil and human rights undermine the state’s capacity to exclude foreigners once they are in the country. MIGRACIŌN LABORAL By considering how Malaysia and Spain have responded to the demand for foreign labour, this book analyses what may be identi ed as the trilemma between markets, Labour Migration MIGRACIŌN LABORAL citizenship and rights. For though their markets are similar, the two countries have di erent approaches to citizenship and rights. We must thus ask: how do such Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain MIGRACIŌN LABORAL divergences a ect state responses to market demands? How, in turn, do state regulations in Malaysia and Spain impact labour migration ows? And what does this mean for contemporary migration BURUH MIGRASI overall? Markets, Citizenship and Rights LABOUR MIGRATION Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher with the Interdisciplinary Research Group in Immigration (¥¦§¦) at Pompeu Fabra ­ ­-­ BURUH MIGRASI University in Barcelona. MIGRACIŌN LABORAL “What does it mean to control immigration? at is the fundamental question posed in this intriguing comparative study, which breaks new theoretical ground. e Spanish and Malaysian states are caught on the horns of a familiar BURUH MIGRASI dilemma: how to satisfy the needs of the marketplace without compromising the social contract. Anyone concerned with the dilemmas of immigration control must read this book.” James F. Holli eld, Director, Tower Center of Political Studies, Southern Methodist University LABOUR MIGRATION “ is truly comparative book will become a standard work in the eld. It opens new research venues, with major implications for a state migration control theory that has too long been Atlanto-centred.” BURUH MIGRASI Leo Lucassen, Professor of Social History, Leiden University “An admirable – and convention-challenging – command of the empirical complexities that went into the making LABOUR MIGRATION of immigration policies and practices in two very divergent states faced with a similar demand for foreign labour.” Diana Wong, Visiting Professor, Universiti Sains Malaysia BURUH MIGRASI LABOUR MIGRATION MIGRACIŌN LABORAL BURUH MIGRASI MIGRACIŌN LABORAL MIGRACIŌN LABORAL .. BURUHA U MIGRASI P BURUH MIGRASI Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain IMISCOE International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe The IMISCOE Research Network unites researchers from, at present, 28 institutes specialising in studies of international migration, integration and social cohesion in Europe. What began in 2004 as a Network of Excellence sponsored by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission has become, as of April 2009, an independent self-funding endeavour. From the start, IMISCOE has promoted integrated, multidisciplinary and globally comparative research led by scholars from various branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law. The Network furthers existing studies and pioneers new scholarship on migration and migrant integration. Encouraging innovative lines of inquiry key to European policymaking and governance is also a priority. The IMISCOE-Amsterdam University Press Series makes the Network’s findings and results available to researchers, policymakers and practitioners, the media and other interested stakeholders. High-quality manuscripts authored by Network members and cooperating partners are evaluated by external peer reviews and the IMISCOE Editorial Committee. The Committee comprises the following members: Tiziana Caponio, Department of Political Studies, University of Turin / Forum for International and European Research on Immigration (FIERI), Turin, Italy Michael Collyer, Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR), University of Sussex, United Kingdom Rosita Fibbi, Swiss Forum for Migration and Population Studies (SFM), University of Neuchâtel / Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland Agata Górny, Centre of Migration Research (CMR) / Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Warsaw, Poland Albert Kraler, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna, Austria Leo Lucassen, Institute of History, Leiden University, The Netherlands Jorge Malheiros, Centre of Geographical Studies (CEG), University of Lisbon, Portugal Marco Martiniello, National Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), Brussels / Center for Ethnic and Migration Studies (CEDEM), University of Liège, Belgium Patrick Simon, National Demographic Institute (INED), Paris, France Miri Song, School of Social Policy and Sociology, University of Kent, United Kingdom More information and how to join the Network can be found at www.imiscoe.org. Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain Markets, Citizenship and Rights Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas IMISCOE Research Cover design: Studio Jan de Boer BNO, Amsterdam Automated lay-out: Philos® ISBN 978 90 8964 286 8 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 362 8 NUR 741 / 763 © Blanca Garcés-Mascareñas / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2012 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. C’est l’Etat qui se pense lui-même en pensant l’immigration, qui se pense selon la ‘pensée d’Etat’ (Sayad 1994: 164) Table of contents Acknowledgements 9 Preface 13 1 Regulating labour migration 17 1.1 The state 17 1.2 Markets 19 1.3 Citizenship 22 1.4 Rights 26 1.5 Migration policies 29 1.6 Law and illegal migration 31 2 Research design and methodology 35 2.1 Research questions 35 2.2 Case selection 37 2.3 Elements of analysis 39 2.4 Methodological approach 41 2.5 Fieldwork in two sites 45 3 Malaysia 49 3.1 Introduction 49 3.2 Exporting goods, importing labour 51 3.3 Towards a guestworker policy 58 3.4 Letting them in... 64 3.5 ... but only as foreigners 74 3.6 Turning illegal migrants into guestworkers 84 3.7 Detaining and deporting ‘illegals’ 93 3.8 Final remarks 101 4 Spain 105 4.1 Introduction 105 4.2 From emigration to immigration 107 4.3 From emigration control to immigration policies 115 4.4 Restricting entry 122 4.5 Between guestworkers and citizens 135 8 labour migration in malaysia and spain 4.6 Regularisation: an entry policy? 143 4.7 Deportation from within and from without 162 4.8 Final remarks 173 5 Comparative perspective 177 5.1 Towards closure 177 5.2 The market response 180 5.3 Rights’ constraints 185 5.4 Regaining control 187 5.5 Final exclusion 190 6 Conclusions 195 6.1 State response to labour demands 195 6.2 Markets, citizenship and rights 198 6.3 The illusion of migration ‘management’ 202 6.4 The state’s production of illegality 205 6.5 Meanings of illegality 208 6.6 Towards a theory of borders and confines 210 References 213 Annex 1: Maps of Malaysia and Spain 230 Annex 2: Acronyms 232 Annex 3: Migration policies 233 Annex 4: List of interviews 239 Annex 5: Graph of immigration trends by nationality in Spain 243 Notes 244 Acknowledgements People say that writing a book is a long journey, a journey that often begins long before it is dreamed. They also say that, like other journeys, a book never happens alone. While the responsibility for what is written is not shared, the path leading to its being written is shared. Without prior re­ search, without sources, without uncomfortable questions and without confidantes to share the process of research with – as well as the life that always goes with it – the result would not be the same. Better said, it would be much poorer. In the case of this book, both tenets hold true. Hence, I begin by naming places and people. Looking back, I’d say that it all began with my mother’s thesis, which was also about migration. Hers concerned Catalan emigration to Puerto Rico in the nineteenth century. Her father, my grandfather, was part of that emigration, although he went to Puerto Rico half a century later, during the early years of Franco’s dictatorship. Like so many other emi­ grants, my grandfather went alone, worked, sent letters and money, and never returned. Years later, my mother retraced his footsteps with her study. My sister and I traced her trajectory from Barcelona, hearing her stories and, on her return, helping organise all the information she had gathered about emigrants, origins and destinations. It is thus no accident that I studied history. During my student years, I reaffirmed an interest in Latin America and deepened my knowledge of this part of the world. I also came upon two new realms: anthropology and Africa. The former was something I discovered with Sandra, Jaume, Joan, Ana and Marc. The latter, with Jordi, Joan, Carme, Albert and Jordi. With them, I learned and took pleasure in learning and, I am happy to say, still do. Without them and everything we shared, I would never have reached this point. The difficulty of choosing from among these worlds – those experienced at home and those discovered at university – took me to Brazil, which I thought would be the perfect place for me. It was halfway between America and Africa and had a significant anthropological tradition. Destiny intervened and I had to return home. But in Brazil I met Wouter – with him I would emigrate to the Netherlands years later. Without him, and thus without my Brazilian sojourn, Amsterdam would never have appeared on my map of possibilities. 10 labour migration in malaysia and spain At the University of Amsterdam, I completed a Master’s degree in migration and ethnic studies at the International School for Humanities and Social Science (ISHSS).