SPECPOL - World Model United Nations

Despite the war, progress continued unabated
in many oil-rich nations, necessitating a new labor
force to fill the void left by millions of departing Arab
workers, the majority of whom did not return even
after the war’s end. The Gulf States subsequently
looked to Southeast Asia to meet the labor demand,
as they were not involved in the geopolitics of
the region that had led to the previous workers
expulsion. 37 The number of migrants from Indonesia
and the Philippines, as well as Sri Lanka, India, and
Bangladesh to GCC states consequently rose. Their
numbers so rapidly expanded that by 1995, there
were as many as 1 million more Asian workers than
native Arabs in the GCC states, a fact which worried
some nations enough to reconsider their almost
exclusive use of Asia as a labor source. 38 though the
workers were initially thought to be less divisive than
other Arabs, conflicts eventually brewed between the
migrants and the native populations, as well as with
the Arab migrant workers as well. The workers were
often subject to mistreatment or, in the case of many
female workers from the Philippines and Indonesia,
sexual harassment. 39 Such reports were met with
differing reactions at home, including banning
migration for Filipina women under the age of 21, and
an outright ban by the Indonesian government on
sending any female domestic workers at all.
Nonetheless, the worldwide reliance on oil allowed
the prosperity of the GCC to continue unabated into
the 21st century. As oil prices recovered from lows
during the Gulf War and a brief period immediately
after, prosperity returned to the region. Development
on roads, cities, and other projects continued, the
labor demand ensured a steady flow of immigrants
from Southeast Asia, who remained enticed by the
employment opportunities despite the reports of
abuse and neglect of workers.
Similarly, the first half of the 1990s saw the
continued growth of selected Asian economies,
which themselves served as potent attractors for
large numbers of migrant laborers. Yet again, the
powerhouse economies of Hong Kong, Singapore,
thailand, Japan, among others, drew many migrant
laborers to their borders to fulfill a wide variety of
domestic and industrial positions. So great was the
allure to seek employment in these places that by
1997, there were at least 6.5 million foreign workers
in seven different Asian countries, including the
previous four, Malaysia, South Korea, and Hong
Kong. 40
The 1997 Asian financial crisis had a severe impact
on labor migration across the continent, halting
much of the development that had necessitated the
migrant labor in the first place. Beginning in Thailand,
the crisis enveloped many Asian nations, devaluing
currencies and causing debt to rise. Though the causes
were uncertain – many blamed it on poor lending
practices – its consequences were immediate. Many
of the most robust economies saw an immediate
halt in their previously consistent growth rates,
causing them to cease many development projects
as they prepared for an uncertain financial future. 41
Unemployment rates rose universally as governments
sought not only to find a solution to the crisis but also
to find some way of dealing with the millions of labor
migrants who had recently poured in, expecting to
find employment. 42
The problem of migrant workers in Asia became
much politicized, as natives sought to p rotect their
own employment interests and called for the forced
deportation and repatriation of many labor migrants,
whom they blamed for the crisis. 43 indeed, the
political pressure was so great that some migrants
actually did get deported, with Malaysia sending
back over 200,000 Indonesian workers and Thailand
announcing a similar plan for workers from Myanmar
as one component of their unemployment Relief
Scheme. Interestingly, in both of those countries,
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