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Theme: 4. Seeing from the Neighbourhood: States, Communities and Human Mobility
Melissa Curley
The University of Queensland, Australia
Faisal Nurdin Idris
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Indonesia
Faisal Nurdin Idris
Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Indonesia
Melissa Curley
The University of Queensland, Australia
Ririn Tri Nurhayati
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Atin Prabandari
Universitas Gadjah Mada, Indonesia
Irawan Jati
The University of Queensland, Australia
This panel engages with ICAS theme 4: ‘Seeing from the Neighourhood: States, Communities and Human Mobility’, with a focus on the complex ways in which migration and human movement have interacted with communities in Southeast Asia in general, and Indonesia specifically. In exploring the complicated interaction of communities, society, and state in Asia and beyond, collectively the papers explore the movement and acceptance of refugees, asylum seekers, and trafficked persons in specific locales via theoretically informed, empirically grounded research. We connect the local reception of asylum seekers, trafficked persons and refugees in specific community and institutional contexts, to regional (ASEAN) and international legal frameworks. These include the Refugee Convention and the Trafficking in Persons Protocol, which aim to promote human rights norms of asylum, protection and non-refoulement. The panel therefore also aims to explore how international norms are socialised and localised in state, regional and community contexts, and what this means for our understanding of norm promotion, resistance, and rejection in Southeast Asia.
The opening paper by Irawan Jati sets the scene to investigate ASEAN’s policy pattern in dealing with the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees in the region, particularly since 2012. It looks into the amplification of the norm by ASEAN and its three member states: Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. The second paper by Sethari Rumatika and Ririn Tri Nurhayati explores how refugees are exercising their political agency by becoming advocates and actors in the negotiation and diplomacy process at the global level via Transnational Advocacy Networks. This is complemented by Atin Prabandari’s discussion in Paper 3 of how protection for refugees in Indonesia is provided through the everyday practices of local actors within local and cultural contexts. Finally, Paper 4 by Faisal Nurdin Idris and Melissa Curley explore the Indonesian government’s implementation of anti-trafficking policies and initiatives in West Kalimantan since the introduction of the 2007 Anti-Trafficking Law following the passage of the UN Trafficking in Persons Protocol in 2000. The panel therefore aims to create a dialogue about the dynamism of local spaces, (drawing on the thematic concept of the ‘kampung’) into sites of protection and agency for refugees, or a challenging space for policy officials on the ground to combat anti-trafficking initiatives. The panel joins together middle and early career scholars and graduate students from three institutions in Australia and Indonesia (Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, Jakarta; Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta; and University of Queensland).
Presenter: Faisal Nurdin Idris – Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University
Co-Presenter: Melissa G. Curley – The University of Queensland
Presenter: Ririn Tri Nurhayati – Gadjah Mada University
Presenter: Atin Prabandari – Universitas Gadjah Mada
Presenter: Irawan Jati – The University of Queensland