Wayne Palmer | Universität Bielefeld (original) (raw)

Books by Wayne Palmer

In Indonesia's Overseas Labour Migration Programme, 1969-2010, Wayne Palmer offers for the first ... more In Indonesia's Overseas Labour Migration Programme, 1969-2010, Wayne Palmer offers for the first time a detailed, critical analysis of the way in which Indonesia's Overseas Labour Migration Programme is managed and how that fits with other developments within the Indonesian government. Commonly portrayed as a corrupt bunch of officials out to line their own pockets at the expense of migrant workers' welfare, here we are shown that they also make exceptions to rules when the law and political climate are not on their side.

Wayne Palmer used interviews with over 120 officials in six Indonesian provinces and three diplomatic missions in the Asia-Pacific region to understand motivations for corrupt and other illegal behaviour.

Journal articles by Wayne Palmer

Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 2024

This paper presents a novel ‘legal process’ analysis to examine labour market institutions' role ... more This paper presents a novel ‘legal process’ analysis to examine labour market institutions' role in addressing violations of migrants' labour rights in Indonesia. Examining 92 labour disputes and conducting qualitative interviews with stakeholders, the study explores Indonesia's primary labour market institutions' effectiveness in safeguarding migrants' rights. Systemic shortcomings within Indonesia's labour market institutions are revealed, indicating their limited capacity to protect migrants' labour rights effectively. Qualitative interviews provide insights into various foci and disconnects contributing to institutional failures. Calling attention to the role of the state, this study identifies ‘institutional fixes’ that facilitate migrant rights protection, such as the assistance provided by private lawyers. It argues for shifting focus from ‘migrant exceptionalism’ to acknowledging migrants' experiences within labour market institutions as workers. This study contributes to understanding migrant labour governance in Indonesia, emphasizing the need to address institutional failures and advocate for comprehensive reforms to protect migrants' rights effectively.

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2023

Historically, the processes in place to govern the recruitment and contracting of Indonesian migr... more Historically, the processes in place to govern the recruitment and contracting of Indonesian migrant fishers have fostered situations of labor abuse and exploitation. The Indonesian government has introduced a new regulatory framework designed to meet international expectations that it creates rules and systems for recruiting migrant fishers in its territory. This article analyzes the state of play immediately before this new regulatory framework was operationalized, generating insights into practices around recruitment and contracting, and providing a baseline for future analysis of the new framework's impact.

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 2023

This paper discusses the understudied situation of legally-resident migrants and their (in)abilit... more This paper discusses the understudied situation of legally-resident migrants and their (in)ability to access employment rights that are otherwise available to Indonesians. In our analysis of the relevant institutional architecture and processes, we approach the issue of integration from a regulatory perspective. We used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how migrants as high-income workers interface with the labor dispute resolution system in Indonesia. Our findings demonstrate the mal-integrated nature of Indonesia’s regulatory system in relation to migration and employment and its consequences for migrant workers’ ability to lodge grievances and avail themselves of their employment rights.

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2022

People smuggling is commonly associated with unidirectional movement, that is, procuring entrance... more People smuggling is commonly associated with unidirectional movement, that is, procuring entrance from underpriviledged origin and transit countries to more desirable destinations that offer gainful employment and/or safety from human rights abuses. Yet, as we expose here, under certain circumstances migrants also make use of smugglers to return to their home countries. To examine this phenomenon more closely and explore why and under what conditions migrants seek out the services of smugglers in order to return from Malaysia to Indonesia, we have analysed 13 court verdicts and conducted eight interviews with law enforcement personnel responsible for arresting facilitators of unauthorised return migration ('smugglers'). Our findings show that return smuggling results predominantly from the inadequacy of options for authorised return, which are costly, time-consuming and have punitive elements. Based on these findings we propose a theoretical clustering along four different modes of return. By disentangling the causes that triggered the evolution of facilitated but unauthorised returns we offer new insights into ongoing debates concerning return migration and 'irregular' migration. The multidirectional nature of smuggling services between Malaysia and Indonesia thus demands that we take a fresh look at the facilitation-authorisation nexus, particularly the modalities and infrastructures accessible for returning migrants.

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022

The recruitment and deployment of migrant fishers in distant waters (DW) fisheries has emerged as... more The recruitment and deployment of migrant fishers in distant waters (DW) fisheries has emerged as a significant site for the production of unfree labor relations. We trace the recruitment and deployment geographies of migrant fishers from the Philippines to the vessel, conceptualizing the time-spaces of the journey as a significant site for producing unfree labor. We argue that labor brokerage not only establishes the conditions of the labor contract and financialization of migration in the migrants’ home country but is also an ongoing process that intensifies unfreedom through the journey to deployment across multiple sites and temporalities. We conceptualize this movement into exploitative laboring situations as “funnels of unfreedom.” The production of unfreedom through the geographies of recruitment, harboring, and transportation to the destination is one strategy by which DW fleets can reduce costs. The relevance of this discussion extends to other sectors where complex labor brokerage geographies constrain migrant worker choices and fortify unfreedom in labor relations.

Pacific Gegraphies, 2022

This article introduces two case studies of underage transporters from Indonesia, who brought asy... more This article introduces two case studies of underage transporters from Indonesia, who brought asylum seekers to Australia by boat and thus were convicted and jailed for the crime of people smuggling. In light of the hyper-politicised issue of people smuggling and the need to find punishable perpetrators, transporters have become the main target of anti-people-smuggling law enforcement. Both transporters came from poor families and started working early on in their lives, which also involved their deceptive recruitment into peoplesmuggling networks. But the outcome of their prosecutions differs substantially, not least, as one of them was convicted in an Australian court and the other in Indonesia. In this article, we problematise the culpability of underage smugglers and argue for more lenient treatment by law-enforcement authorities.

Pacific Affairs, 2022

Scholars have devoted insufficient attention to Indonesia's foreign policy on migrant worker prot... more Scholars have devoted insufficient attention to Indonesia's foreign policy on migrant worker protection, especially as mobilized in multilateral institutions. This article addresses such knowledge gaps by analyzing why Indonesia has, for almost two decades, persistently promoted the United Nations Migrant Worker Convention in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite constant pushback from migrant-receiving countries. It argues that Indonesia's persistence is driven by its locally constituted meaning of migrant worker rights. In particular, this article advances the critical norms approach in international relations to demonstrate that its interpretation is influenced by "Indonesia's normative baggage," or past experiences with labour migration that have too frequently dealt with the exploitation of Indonesian citizens abroad. This normative baggage in turn shapes the country's diplomacy and promotion of convention standards deemed appropriate for safeguarding Indonesian migrants in ASEAN. In presenting the argument, this article contributes to the study of labour migration by scrutinizing Indonesia's foreign policy on migrant protection and unpacking norm interpretation processes that are necessary in international negotiations.

TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2022

Employment relations systems generally fail to enforce all legal rights of migrant workers. This ... more Employment relations systems generally fail to enforce all legal rights of migrant workers. This article illustrates a broader approach to the way labour migration is regulated in practice, using the example of migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong. Political economists have shown that the reality of low-wage migration is either 'more rights, less access' or 'fewer rights, greater access' in terms of rights enforcement systems. Attention to the effectiveness of such mechanisms and processes reveals another feature of regulation: the divergence of theory from practice. Much scholarly attention has been paid to rights, and this analysis, in which enforcement of those rights is sought, contributes to the literature with a frequently-occurring example of how such regulatory practices effectively restrict migrant rights. The article concludes by arguing that regulation uses employers as a further 'mechanism of control' to determine the actual quantity and quality of migrant workers' employment rights regardless of what is stipulated in the law.

Indonesia, 2020

When crossing the ocean between Indonesia and Australia, thousands of asylum seekers have relied ... more When crossing the ocean between Indonesia and Australia, thousands of asylum seekers have relied on the support of Indonesian transporters who have ferried them by boat to one of Australia’s outposts, such as Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island. Most of these crossings took place between January 2008 and September 2013 when Australia introduced a whole-of-government military-led response that employed a zero-tolerance approach to the arrival of asylum seekers by boat. These maritime journeys were dangerous for both passengers and crew, too many of whom met premature death at sea. Once in Australian waters, Australian border patrols would intercept the asylum-seeker boats and divide the people on board into “smugglers” and “asylum seekers,” treating each group differently. While the asylum seekers were arbitrarily and indefinitely held in detention centers in Australia and offshore in Pacific Island states the alleged people smugglers faced mandatory five-year prison sentences under the Australian Migration Act 1958.

Among the smugglers were many minors who were incarcerated in adult prisons because the Australian authorities did not recognize their real age. Indeed, determining these young people’s ages is easier said than done, as they would often travel without legal identity documents and carry no other proof of their age. After all, the sea journeys were clandestine, as the smugglers hoped to avoid authorities who would check their documents, which people from low-income areas often do not have. Incorrect age determinations thus resulted in the miscarriage of justice in Australia, as minors were found to be adults and treated accordingly, even though by law they ought to be exempt from the mandatory minimum penalty of five years in prison. When individuals under the age of eighteen are imprisoned, more lenient rules are supposed to apply to their incarceration relative to rules for adults. Frequently, however, this has not been the case because of difficulties the accused have faced in proving their ages. Such wrongful treatment of minors has provoked a public outcry and two government inquiries, which, among many other findings, sharply criticized the frequent convictions of underage offenders and their incarceration in adult prisons. Despite such widespread condemnation, however, compensation for youthful victims of wrongful imprisonment has been hard to achieve. This article provides a detailed analysis of how and why a lawyer failed to broker through the Indonesian legal system compensation for minors’ wrongful imprisonment in Australia.

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2020

The World Bank estimated the number of documented and undocumented Indonesian labor migrants to b... more The World Bank estimated the number of documented and undocumented Indonesian labor migrants to be nine million in 2016, equivalent to about 7 percent of the national labor force, with around 38 percent of them involved in domestic and caregiving work (World Bank, 2017: 11). In 2019, Indonesia was the third-largest migrant-sending country in East and Southeast Asia after China and the Philippines (United Nations, 2019). Yet, at a time when circular labor migration has become a key feature of the global political economy, it is not the figures alone that make Indonesia a compelling case study to examine a wide array of labor migration issues. The Indonesian experience offers useful insights into understanding broader labor migration problems, namely, (i) the problem of contested governance and transnational advocacy; (ii) the oft-debated links between remittances and development; and (iii) issues arising from the multi-directional nature of labor migration. This special section provides a close examination of these key global challenges in the Indonesian context. In our introduction, we situate each of these issues within their broader contexts and attendant debates. We then draw out the key contributions of each paper and outline the implications these have for further research.

Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 2020

This article examines the legal and political context for prosecuting corporate crime in Indonesi... more This article examines the legal and political context for prosecuting corporate crime in Indonesia. It presents a case study of the landmark case in which a migrant labour recruitment agency was successfully prosecuted for human trafficking. This article explains the rationale and motivation of the prosecution in four sections. First, it considers the development and purpose of corporate liability as a legal concept to foreground the second section, which outlines the legal and policy framework for pursuing corporations that commit crime in Indonesia. This section also offers a detailed discussion about how individuals have been proceeded against in human trafficking cases that involve corporations. Third, this article presents a case study of the first and only instance where a corporation was successfully prosecuted for human trafficking to highlight the sequence of events that made the effort possible. Fourth, the discussion that follows identifies the prosecution’s motivations for bringing the case, and makes empirical conclusions about the purpose of prosecuting corporations for human trafficking through the Indonesian legal system. In conclusion, this article argues that the institutional drive to punish corporate involvement in economic crime has created the necessary systems to seek the punishment of a wider range of other corporate crimes, including human trafficking.

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2020

The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily a... more The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily attributable to unilateral deterrence policies under Australia's Operation Sovereign Borders. When seeking to prevent asylum seekers from coming to Australia to enjoy the right to asylum there, the Australian government has tested a number of deterrent mechanisms that sometimes border on illegality and even state crime. In May 2015, for example, Australian authorities intercepted an Indonesian boat carrying 65 asylum seekers and allegedly paid the six smugglers to return their passengers to Indonesia. In this article, we reconstruct what happened at sea, and put forward a number of arguments that categorise this ‘turnback’ as explicitly-commissioned people smuggling against Indonesia. Our article also points to further implications about looming risks if the policy was to be employed more widely by states in other areas of the world where people cross the sea to seek asylum. Not only would the practice severely undermine international collaborations that have developed to prevent and combat people smuggling, but it would also create additional safety risks for those who are turned back.

Court of Conscience, 2019

The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily a... more The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily attributable to unilateral deterrence policies under Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders, rather than to bilateral or multilateral cooperation in enforcing anti-people smuggling laws in the region. Yet, more than 30 asylum-seeker boats have departed from Indonesia since that time. Australia’s handling of one boat in particular stands out, not least because of the intense media attention it attracted. In May 2015, Australian authorities intercepted an Indonesian boat carrying 65 asylum seekers and allegedly paid the six smugglers on board to return the asylum seekers to Indonesia. In this article, we reconstruct what happened at sea, and put forward a number of arguments that categorize this “turnback” as a form of state-sanctioned people smuggling. Our article also raises a number of further questions about looming risks if state-sanctioned people smuggling was to be employed more widely by states in other areas of the world where people cross the sea to seek asylum. Not only would the practice severely undermine international collaborations that have developed to combat people smuggling, but it would also create additional safety risks for those who are turned back.

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2019

This article analyses the impact of international migration on the formation and maintenance of s... more This article analyses the impact of international migration on the formation and maintenance of stereotypes about the ethnic and national identities of migrant workers. It demonstrates that the employment conditions of Indonesian domestic workers in Hong Kong encourage certain types of behaviour, which in turn contribute to the processes of stereotype formation and maintenance about them in the host society. Intergroup contact theory predicts that even superficial interaction should disconfirm existing stereotypes, but this article shows how the 'context of reception' in host societies prevents this from happening through its creation of sub-optimal conditions, such as unequal power relationships.

The multi-directional nature of labour migration flows has resulted in an increasing number of co... more The multi-directional nature of labour migration flows has resulted in an increasing number of countries having become both senders and receivers of regular and irregular migrants. However, some countries continue to see themselves primarily as senders and so ignore their role as a receiving country, which can have negative implications for the rights of migrants in their territory. Using the example of Indonesia, which is State Party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, this article demonstrates that irreg- ular migrant workers in this country have the legal right to protection against labour exploitation even when they work despite the govern- ment’s prohibition on employment. The article discusses the ‘right to work’ and how international human rights law has translated it into the ‘right to protection from labour exploitation’ for irregular migrants in Indonesia. By way of two case studies about the Indonesian government’s handling of irregular migrants, it shows how it prioritises enforcement of the employment immigration law over labour and employment laws much like countries that have not ratified the ICRMW. It also draws attention to legal protection gaps that emerge for asylum seekers when they are recognised to be genuine refugees.

Migration Information Source, Sep 19, 2018

Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest country, has for decades been a major origin for labor migr... more Indonesia, the world’s fourth-largest country, has for decades been a major origin for labor migration, with its workers fanning out to locations in the Asia-Pacific and beyond. Home to a diverse array of cultures and situated along several major trading and transport routes, it has reluctantly found itself in the role of transit and destination country more recently. Though Indonesian policymakers have made progress on protecting migrant workers abroad, the country continues to face challenges associated with its competing migration identities, such as protection of trafficking victims and asylum seekers.

Migration and mobility are intrinsic characteristics of the many Indonesian cultures that shape its population of 267 million people. The country is formed by a volcanic archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, differing significantly in size, topography, and weather patterns. As a result, a high degree of seasonal inter-island travel and more permanent internal migration have often been preconditions for advancement, prosperity, and sometimes survival in the Ring of Fire.

This article explores historical and contemporary migration to, from, and through Indonesia, encompassing colonial-era movements, labor migration in the late 1900s and today, and the transiting asylum seekers who have tested regional governance and coordination.

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

The general, but false, perception of migrant smuggling through Indonesia, a large, archipel-agic... more The general, but false, perception of migrant smuggling through Indonesia, a large, archipel-agic country, is that smugglers operate entirely on their own. In fact, the more complex smuggling operations rely on broad networks of foreign organizers as well as local intermediaries and ground staff. In 2011, the Indonesian legislature introduced a severe minimum sentence for any involvement in migrant smuggling with the expectation that the judiciary would apply the sentence in all future cases. However, some judges proceeded to hand down sentences below the statutory minimum, arguing that the punishment is not commensurate to the relatively minor roles played by locals. This article examines how judges at all levels of the judiciary did so in ten related cases. In conclusion, it argues that statutory sentences are not mandatory in Indonesia and that, by applying below-minimum sentences, judges not only maintain judicial independence; they also effectively exercise a judicial review function.

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2017

Australia on several occasions, but was arrested and sentenced for his involvement on the last at... more Australia on several occasions, but was arrested and sentenced for his involvement on the last attempt. The reasons for exploring this case in detail are twofold. First, the use of Indonesian child labor in migrant smuggling operations is a prevalent practice. Evidence of this is particularly obvious in the large number of Indonesian children imprisoned or otherwise detained in Australia for their involvement in migrant smuggling. Second, we consider how these people fit into the smuggling-trafficking nexus before discussing the concepts of “victim” and “perpetrator” in a case where justice officials do not agree whether a juvenile transporter should be treated as an active perpetrator, and therefore punishable for migrant smuggling, or whether to treat him as a passive victim of trafficking who was deceived into carrying out the crime.

International Migration, 2018

In 2015 the International Organization for Migration (IOM) identified almost 1,200 trafficked mig... more In 2015 the International Organization for Migration (IOM) identified almost 1,200 trafficked migrants working in slave-like conditions on fishing boats in East Indonesia. The IOM helped the migrants and offered to cover the cost of repatriation to their countries of citizenship. The Indonesian government appreciated the financial support, not least because the victims’ embassies refused to pay. But most victims in one location refused to return to their home country without the wages owed to them by their trafficker-cum-employers. IOM policy states that migrants are eligible to use the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration (AVRR) service if they are unable or unwilling to remain in the host country. But another condition is that migrants must use the services voluntarily. The IOM could not force the migrants to leave the country, and national law prevented the Indonesian government from deporting the migrants because the IOM had identified them as victims of trafficking.

Asia & the Pacific Policy Studies, 2024

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2023

Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 2023

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 2022

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022

Pacific Gegraphies, 2022

Pacific Affairs, 2022

TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, 2022

Indonesia, 2020

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2020

Asian Journal of Comparative Law, 2020

Australian Journal of International Affairs, 2020

Court of Conscience, 2019

The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily a... more The decline in the smuggling of people from Indonesia to Australia since late 2013 is primarily attributable to unilateral deterrence policies under Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders, rather than to bilateral or multilateral cooperation in enforcing anti-people smuggling laws in the region. Yet, more than 30 asylum-seeker boats have departed from Indonesia since that time. Australia’s handling of one boat in particular stands out, not least because of the intense media attention it attracted. In May 2015, Australian authorities intercepted an Indonesian boat carrying 65 asylum seekers and allegedly paid the six smugglers on board to return the asylum seekers to Indonesia. In this article, we reconstruct what happened at sea, and put forward a number of arguments that categorize this “turnback” as a form of state-sanctioned people smuggling. Our article also raises a number of further questions about looming risks if state-sanctioned people smuggling was to be employed more widely by states in other areas of the world where people cross the sea to seek asylum. Not only would the practice severely undermine international collaborations that have developed to combat people smuggling, but it would also create additional safety risks for those who are turned back.

Journal of International Migration and Integration, 2019

Migration Information Source, Sep 19, 2018

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 2017

International Migration, 2018

Critical insights on irregular migration facilitation: Global perspectives, 2019

Worldwide, children and teenagers are recruited for activities related to people smuggling. The r... more Worldwide, children and teenagers are recruited for activities related to people smuggling. The reasons for their recruitment range from the lower cost of their labour and their readiness to obey orders to their per- ception within smuggling operations: since children have a low chance of being prosecuted, it is often believed that laws are more lenient when they are tried for their involvement in smuggling.

Departing from Java: Javanese Labour, Migration, Diaspora, 2018

In its more than forty years of existence, Indonesia’s overseas labour migration programme has re... more In its more than forty years of existence, Indonesia’s overseas labour migration programme has recorded almost seven million departures, with Hong Kong and Singapore being popular destination countries in the Asia-Pacific region. These migrants' capacity to integrate into these countries is circumscribed by a migration system that makes their stay temporary and extracts between 30 and 100 per cent of their income during their first and sometimes subsequent periods of employment for payment of fees to migration intermediaries. Like Singapore, post-handover Hong Kong has a legislature that passes employment and immigration laws for application in that territory only. The conditions and experience of Indonesian migrant workers in the city-states are similar in this respect, but they are different from each other in three main ways. In Hong Kong, there is a minimum wage; it is criminal for employers to deny some labour rights; and the state there guarantees migrant workers a wider range of civil and political rights. Each place presents migrant workers with a unique set of opportunities and constraints to negotiate life and work, and the ways Indonesian domestic workers have gone about this have contributed to the formation of stereotypes about their character there.

Labour Migration and Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives, 2012

Observers of Indonesia’s formal labour export program claim that trafficking-like practices occur... more Observers of Indonesia’s formal labour export program claim that trafficking-like practices occur at each stage of the migration process. Many reports single out the actions of recruitment agents for particular attention. For example, the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report states that Indonesia’s licensed recruitment agents operate ‘similarly to trafficking rings,’ noting that they ‘routinely falsif[y] birth dates, including for children, in order to apply for passports and migrant worker documents.’ The United States government (2009: 159) also criticises the fact that these agents keep female recruits in ‘holding centres sometimes for periods of many months,’ during which time they are not free to leave. Agents also allow women to finance migration through wage deductions after they have been deployed, a practice which the report argues creates situations of debt-bondage and forced labour in the countries where they work. Not all of these practices contravene Indonesian law: indeed, post-deployment payment of recruitment fees and the use of holding centres are sanctioned by the state. However, refusing recruits the right to leave those facilities and falsifying their personal data are clearly illegal. Yet public officials responsible for monitoring the program do not always refer evidence of illegality to law enforcement officers, choosing instead to ignore it.