Showing papers in "European Journal of East Asian Studies in 2017"

Revitalising Indonesia’s Manufacturing: The Productivity Conundrum

Abstract: In light of the continuing importance, but declining dynamism, of the manufacturing sector, this paper investigates trends in productivity at firm levels. It finds that labour productivity has been either stagnant or falling in labour-intensive manufacturing. The paper uses firm level cross-sectional and time series data and employs GMM techniques to estimate determinants of productivity. It finds that real wage is the most important variable that influences firm level productivity, followed by capital intensity. Contrary to the common perception, foreign ownership and export orientation are not found to have statistically significant influence on firm level productivity. This finding is consistent for firms of all sizes—large, medium, small and micro. This implies that Indonesia can use wages policy, as Singapore did during the late 1970s to mid-1980s, to upgrade its manufacturing to higher value-added activities.

Migrant Domestic Workers as ‘Agents’ of Development in Asia: An Institutional Analysis of Temporality

Abstract: Temporary contract migration represents the predominant form of legal migration policy in Asia. With its rationale of the filling of jobs and provision of income-generating opportunities, it is linked to the migration–development nexus debate. This paper focuses on the impact of migrants’ agency as development actors within a transnational sphere. The mainstream migration–development nexus debate and policy prescriptions imagine diaspora groups as the ideal conduit for grassroots-driven development initiatives. While ‘diaspora group-led’ initiatives assume long-term, if not permanent, migration, temporary migration creates a dynamic that is fundamentally distinct. Temporality of migration, as mandated by bilateral agreements and promoted by global institutions in Asia, shapes migrant agency and migrants’ development aspirations in essentially different ways, but temporary contract migrants are nevertheless constructed as the ‘agents of development’ at the macro level of politics and policies, while receiving limited research attention. This paper analyses temporality, migrant agency and the migration–development nexus debate in relation to female domestic workers who epitomise the feminisation of migration and constitute the largest number of newly hired migrants in many key source countries in Southeast Asia. This introduces a gender dimension to our discussion of temporary migration in its link to migrants’ developmental agency.

Industrial Development, Liberalisation and Impacts of Vietnam–China Border Trade: The Case of the Vietnamese Textile and Garment Sector

Abstract: Successful industrial development among third world countries is rare. In the past century, only a handful of countries were able to make the big leap to become industrialised countries more or less equal to the US and Europe. This is because industrialisation requires resources, state planning, coordination, resilience to external shocks and sustained performance of firms. These requirements are extremely difficult to achieve in the context of a weak state, low levels of skilled labour, underdeveloped credit markets and timid economic demand for goods and services. This paper assesses the development of the textile and garment industry in a transitional economy, Vietnam, from the political-economy perspectives of state intervention and trade liberalisation. The paper analyses in depth (1) Vietnam’s industrial policies for the textile and garment industry and (2) Vietnam–China border trade and impacts of China’s economic rise on the industry’s development. It illustrates Vietnam’s multiple failed attempts in implementing industrial policies, the political economy of Sino-Vietnam border trade and the penetration of Chinese industrial surplus in the Vietnamese market. The analysis suggests that the Vietnamese model of liberalisation exposed its industries to excessive competition, making them unable to reach the technological level and production scale needed to be globally competitive.

Ethnic Relations in Northeast China: Ethnic Revival or De-Ethnicisation of the Korean Diaspora?

Abstract: This article discusses the dynamic changes in ethnic relations that have taken place in the Joseonjok (Chaoxianju) community comprising minority Koreans residing in and around Yanbian, an autonomous prefecture in northeastern China, and discusses the implications of those changes for the region. The main focus is on how the tension between China’s fluctuating ethnicity-related politics and this diaspora group’s continual struggle for a collective identity has been managed and internalised. Contrary to existing studies on the Joseonjok, the paper argues that the group has experienced de-ethnicisation, both as a top-down (government policy) and bottom-up (diaspora’s reaction) process, rather than ethnic revival. The puzzling question is how and why de-ethnicisation occurs despite the commonly accepted conditions of ethnonationalism and, more recently, with trans-nationalism, heavily influenced by their Korean motherlands. Based primarily on ethnographical research and using a multiculturalism approach, this paper argues that the recent policy failure in dealing with multiculturality in China, together with the changing geopolitics of the region, has accelerated the process of de-ethnicisation. Joseonjok society’s particular way of resisting political pressures and coping with ethnic tension in fact reflects a diaspora’s common struggle to achieve integration with mainstream society while ensuring recognition of its own distinctive characteristics.

Working in Mecca: How Informal Pilgrimage-Migration from Madura, Indonesia, to Saudi Arabia Challenges State Sovereignty

Abstract: On the island of Madura, various forms of pilgrimage–migration, a fusion of labour migration and pilgrimage, challenge the Indonesian government’s regulation of pilgrims’ and labourers’ mobility to the Gulf. Among the Madurese people, alternative channels of travelling to Mecca are increasingly popular and informal; personal networks appear to be considered more reliable and accountable than the state’s guidance. The Madurese people’s strong desire to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, local conceptions of migration in search of success and incomprehensible bureaucratic procedures in the official channels of migration and pilgrimage motivate people to circumvent state structures. Moreover, rumours about the ‘Madurese mafia’ in Mecca and the religious elite’s connections to the ‘Holy Land’ strengthen religious and ethnic affiliations. Local loyalties challenge the state’s sovereignty over actual practices of semi-legal approaches to migration and pilgrimage.

Economic Policy and Developmental Regulation in South Korea

Abstract: This paper analyses the importance of a developmental regulation system in the economic policy path of Korea since the 1960s. This system has three dimensions: proscriptive (i.e. determining the type of activity or the price of a commodity and creating state-owned companies), prescriptive (i.e. policy recommendations) and liberalising (i.e. setting up some regulations to protect competition and prevent monopolies). The main emphasis was proscriptive and prescriptive during the first phase (1962–1993) and moved to liberalisation during the second phase (1993–2003). The third phase (2003–present) has been focused on a balanced combination of all three dimensions. This paper shows how the Korean state has implemented a system of developmental regulation to strengthen public and private enterprises, to promote direct and indirect management of these firms, and to move towards long-term economic policy effectiveness in order to serve national industrialisation and sustainable growth.

The Role of Familiarity in the Destination Image: A Case Study of South Korea

Abstract: The present study aims to explain more deeply the theory of destination image and its process of formation in culturally distant countries, specifically regarding familiarity as a factor of influence. To achieve this aim, a questionnaire was administered to 307 South Korean citizens in order to examine Koreans’ image of Spain as a tourist destination, and the level of familiarity with the destination. The findings reveal that familiarity has a moderating effect on the destination image, and the main information source that most contributes to a positive image is provided by ‘relatives, friends, and/or acquaintances’. This paper contributes to the literature by showing the importance of familiarity on image formation and has significant management implications in the context of helping to create an appropriate image of a tourist destination.

Niche, Ethnic and Global Operations: Models of Production and Circulation of East Asian Popular Music

Abstract: Recent writings on the new media emphasise how the gateless and equalising nature of digital platforms have enabled freer circulation of cultural products around the world and increased the global visibility and popularity of non-Western media content, including popular music products. These writings, however, fail to account for the intermediary role of market participants in patterning the specific consumption and circulation of products. This paper thus comparatively examines the rise and circulation of three East Asian popular musics, J-pop, C-pop and K-pop, and how their differential spread and success have been achieved on the basis of distinctly elaborated organisational strategies in the midst of rising digitisation. The article argues that industry participants of the three East Asian locations, embedded within their respective historical, social and market environments, strategised their courses of actions differently to elaborate distinct models of musical production and circulation. The author conceptualizes each operational model as ‘niche’, ‘ethnic’ and ‘global’, respectively.

The ASEAN Economic Community and National Sovereignty: Towards a Securitisation of Labour Migration? A Press Analysis of Four Southeast Asian Countries

Abstract: The article examines whether, and how far, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) has triggered a discourse on labour migration in ASEAN member countries which exhibits a tendency towards securitising the free flow of labour. It begins with the observation that fears linger in ASEAN’s member countries that market liberalisation may not only lead to a flooding with imported goods, but also intensify intra-regional labour migration. The ushering in of the AEC can thus be considered a critical juncture facilitating ideational changes and so exacerbating labour migration politicisation. Resting on the Copenhagen School’s securitisation theory and a discourse analysis of 72 newspaper articles, and based on a taxonomy of politicisation, the article’s major findings are that the level of politicisation is limited in the four countries under investigation. Surprisingly, it is higher in Indonesia than in Singapore and Malaysia where securitisation effects would have been expected. Explanations suggest that issues such as terrorism and maritime border concerns are currently more conducive for securitisation. In Indonesia and Singapore, the level of politicising post-AEC labour migration is higher than in Malaysia and the Philippines due to deeply inculcated vulnerability and survival discourses, which let elites respond seismically to global and regional developments.

Challenging State Sovereignty in the Age of Migration: A Multi-Level Approach to Southeast and East Asian Migration

Abstract: This two-part Special Issue has examined the migration–sovereignty nexus in the context of intra-regional migration in Asia, with specific focus on Southeast Asia (‘Special Issue’). The sub-region represents the perfect laboratory for teasing out the complexities involved in (actual and rhetorical) attempts made by states to control and regulate migration in what has become a space characterised by increasing diversity of (collective and individual) actors operating at various levels. The diversity, complexity and breadth of migratory movements discussed in this Special Issue thus constitute one of the policy fields where the sovereignty norm clashes with the need to manage interdependence. The seven empirical studies in this Special Issue have examined current political, economic, social and legal dimensions of migration in Southeast Asia from an interdisciplinary perspective, linking the discussion of the migration–sovereignty nexus to ‘regional migration regimes’, ‘the transnational–national intersection’ and ‘grass-roots responses’. The common message that emerges from the papers in this issue—that state sovereignty in the area of migration is being challenged from multiple levels—leads us to argue for a future research agenda which would align the study of sovereignty more closely with governance studies as well as studies on norm diffusion. Such an agenda would contribute new insights into emerging forms of sovereignty beyond the confines of the state.

Understanding Taiwan’s Agricultural Protectionism: Is the Strong State Argument Still Valid?

Abstract: The following article aims to discern whether partial protectionism in Taiwan’s meat markets can still be explained as a function of Taiwan’s ‘strong state argument’, which was developed to understand the nation’s policies between the 1960s and 1980s. In spite of a weak international position, Taiwan has been able to sustain a policy of agricultural protection, based on the unitary rationality of its domestic bureaucratic units and a centralised process of decision-making. The institutional path dependence witnessed in agricultural trade policy can help explain why, for example, Taiwan is able to ban imports of agricultural items from the United States and Japan, which are two of Taiwan’s largest supporters in the international arena. The article analyses the domestic structure of agricultural market access decision-making, in order to shed light on how this structure is used to leverage trade-offs in other areas where Taiwan’s bargaining position is weaker, given its international status; and thus it revises Taiwan’s strong state argument as causal towards explaining agricultural protectionism.