ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the linkage between security/insecurity and people’s perceptions of their social and political environment in the context of rapid socioeconomic development and changes manifested in transborder migratory flows. It argues that insecurity is caused by a people’s ability to distinguish their identity from others that in this case is the foreigner. The chapter suggests that people feel insecure primarily because of their inability to comprehend and capture the infinite array of actions and consequences they expect from themselves and from others. It focuses on the clandestine movement of generally low-skilled labor in Southeast Asia and excludes other forms of population movements and movers, such as refugee migration and professional expatriates. The chapter seeks to determine people’s perceptions and expectations on issues and concerns related to undocumented flows of migrant labor. Labor emigration programs have a strong stopgap orientation, that is, that labor migration is necessary to address and persistent national economic and social concerns.
