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 Fluid Security in the
Asia Pacific
Transnational Lives,
Human Rights and State Control

Claudia Tazreiter
Leanne Weber
Sharon Pickering
Marie Segrave
Helen McKernan
Transnational Crime, Crime Control and Security
Series editors:
Anastassia Tsoukala, University of Paris XI, France
James Sheptycki, York University, Canada

Editorial board:
Peter Andreas, Brown University, USA, Vida Bajc, Methodist University, USA,
Benjamin Bowling, King’s College London, UK, Stanley Cohen, London
School of Economics and Political Science, UK, Andrew Dawson, University of
Melbourne, Australia, Benoît Dupont, University of Montreal, Canada,
Nicholas Fyfe, University of Dundee, UK, Andrew Goldsmith, University of
Wollongong, Australia, Kevin Haggerty, University of Alberta, Canada,
Jef Huysmans, Open University, UK, Robert Latham, York University,
Canada, Stéphane Leman-Langlois, Laval University, Canada, Michael Levi,
Cardiff University, UK, Monique Marks, University of KwaZulu-Natal,
South Africa, Valsamis Mitsilegas, Queen Mary, University of London, UK,
Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance, USA, John Torpey, CUNY Graduate
Center, New York, USA, Federico Varese, University of Oxford, UK.

Titles include:
Vida Bajc (editor)
Surveilling and Securing the Olympics
From Toyko 1964 to London 2012 and Beyond
Paul Battersby
THE UNLAWFUL SOCIETY
Global Crime and Security in a Complex World
Sophie Body-Gendrot
GLOBALIZATION, FEAR AND INSECURITY
The Challenges for Cities North and South
Graham Ellison and Nathan Pino (editors)
GLOBALIZATION, POLICE REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT
Doing it the Western Way?
Jennifer Fleetwood
DRUG MULES
Gender and Crime in a Transnational Context
Chris Giacomantonio
POLICING INTEGRATION
The Sociology of Police Coordination Work
Alexander Kupatadze
Organized Crime, Political Transitions and State Formation
in Post-Soviet Eurasia
Johan Leman and Stef Janssens
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND MIGRANT SMUGGLING IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE
AND RUSSIA
Criminal Entrepreneurship and Traditional Culture
(continued in page ii)
Jude McCulloch and Sharon Pickering (editors)
BORDERS AND TRANSNATIONAL CRIME
Pre-Crime, Mobility and Serious Harm in an Age of Globalization
Georgios Papanicolaou
TRASNATIONAL POLICING AND SEX TRAFFICKING IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE
Policing the Imperialist Chain
Claudia Tazreiter, Leanne Weber, Sharon Pickering, Marie Segrave
and Helen McKernan
FLUID SECURITY IN THE ASIA PACIFIC
Mobility, Rights and Culture in Everyday Life
Leanne Weber and Sharon Pickering (editors)
GLOBALIZATION AND BORDERS
Death at the Global Frontier
Linda Zhao
FINANCING ILLEGAL MIGRATION
Chinese Underground Banks and Human Smuggling in New York City

Transnational Crime, Crime Control and Security

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Fluid Security in the Asia
Pacific
Transnational Lives, Human Rights
and State Control

Claudia Tazreiter
University of New South Wales, Australia

Leanne Weber
Monash University, Australia

Sharon Pickering
Monash University, Australia

Marie Segrave
Monash University, Australia

Helen McKernan
Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
Claudia Tazreiter Marie Segrave
University of New South Wales Monash University
Australia Australia
Leanne Weber Helen McKernan
Monash University Swinburne University of Technology
Australia Australia
Sharon Pickering
Monash University
Australia

Transnational Crime, Crime Control and Security

ISBN 978-1-137-46595-5 ISBN 978-1-137-46596-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-46596-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016930312

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016

The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in
accordance wih the Copyright, Design and Patents Act 1988.
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher,
whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation,
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other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation,
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Printed on acid-free paper

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Contents

Preface vii

Copyright Permissions xiii

Acknowledgements xv

List of Tables xvii

List of Figures xix

List of Abbreviations xxi

1 In Search of ‘Fluid Security’: The Outline of a Concept 1

2 Methodology 19

3 Chinese Students: Isolated Global Citizens 31

4 Indonesian Temporary Migrants: Australia as First

Preference or Last Resort? 53

5 Samoan-Born New Zealanders as Trans-Tasman Denizens 77

6 Tongan Seasonal Workers: Permanent Temporariness 103

7 The Decision to Leave: Processes That Drive Mobility 129

8 Reaching Australia: Processes That Mediate Mobility 159

9 Processes of Reception and Inclusion in Australia 193

10 Conclusion 229

References 253

Index 269

v
Preface

As this book was being finalised, the Australian government celebrated

the establishment of the Australian Border Force on 1 July 2015 with the
swearing in of the head of the agency, former Australian Capital Territory
chief police officer Roman Quaedvlieg. The Australian Border Force
brings together all ‘operational border’ functions, including customs,
border security, investigations, detention, and immigration and citizen-
ship governance and compliance, and has powers outlined in the new
Australian Border Force Bill 2015, passed by the Australian Parliament on
15 May 2015. In launching the new entity, Prime Minister Tony Abbott
described the force’s officers as ‘the guardians of Australia’s safety, secu-
rity and prosperity’ (ABC, 1 July 2014). One key feature of the Border
Force is the secrecy surrounding what are termed ‘operational matters’,
referring primarily to the on-water activities carried out under ‘Operation
Sovereign Borders’ (introduced in September 2013 with the election of
the Abbott government) in intercepting and turning back boats carrying
asylum seekers before they reach Australian shores. It is yet to be seen
what impact the new Border Force will have on the less controversial,
perhaps mundane, yet vital aspects of its broad mandate to ensure effi-
cient and just immigration processes and regulations, to foster a holistic
understanding of citizenship and access to it, and to work in ways that
enhance rather than narrow tolerance and respect for the diversity that
is a social fact in multi-ethnic and multicultural Australia.
This book focuses squarely on the experiences of temporary migrants
in the Asia-Pacific region while at the same time locating the subject
matter within the context of international migration and its global
governance. According to the Global Commission on International
Migration, the Asia-Pacific region is home to 57.7% of the world’s
population. Migration patterns within and beyond this region are fluid
and complex. These movements involve asylum seekers using Asian
nations as ‘transit’ points on their way to nations such as Australia,
economic migrants travelling from rural to urban areas, sex trafficking
networks, and temporary labourers. The economic, political, cultural
and geographic complexity of the Asia-Pacific region make it impossi-
ble to generalise about migration patterns, as does the lack of concrete
data on migration flows due to undocumented migration and corrupt
official processes.

vi
 Preface vii

On his visit to Australia in November 2011, US president Barack

Obama addressed the Australian Parliament. In his speech, the presi-
dent outlined his intention to shift US foreign policy towards the Asia-
Pacific region, undoubtedly a response to the growth of China as an
economic and military superpower. In outlining US aims for the region,
Obama focused on ‘commerce and freedom of navigation’ as hallmarks
of development. This economic perspective inextricably couples democ-
racy with financial growth, a prevalent theme of both US and Australian
government rhetoric concerning the alleviation of poverty. The sole ref-
erence to human rights in the president’s speech was to so-called first-
generation rights: freedom of speech, association, assembly, religion and
freedom of the press, enshrined in the 1966 UN Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. However, to be effectively realised, these rights ought
to be understood in tandem with the rights enshrined in the 1966 UN
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Approach of This Book

This book addresses a significant problem for immigrant societies such

as Australia, that of balancing national systems of migration control
and border management with migrants’ rights and the transnational
lives and aspirations of individual migrants and their families. A number
of variables shape the experiences of those who make the decision to
migrate, including (1) levels of education, qualifications and skills; (2)
access to and knowledge of regular/legal routes of migration; (3) feelings
of cultural affinity and recognition in the host society; and (4) access to
and knowledge of residency and membership rights in the host coun-
try. These variables interact with the primary decision-making drivers
of migration for individuals. In other words, a person’s position on a
migration continuum relative to the variables outlined above interacts
with their decision-making, access to information, entitlements and
forms of social recognition.
Drawing on human rights and human security literature, this book
explores the above variables within the framework of what we have
labelled ‘domains of security’—cultural, legal, economic and physical
security. These often intersecting domains are defined from the perspec-
tive of the individual and are further analysed through the processes
that (1) drive mobility, (2) mediate mobility and (3) influence recep-
tion and inclusion. The domains of security operationalised within this
study are defined in more detail in Chap. 2. Our articulation of these
processes as ‘fluid security’ is conceptualised as a flexible toolkit that can
viii Preface

be deployed by migrants to negotiate their everyday aspirations, needs,

realities and self-understanding. Individuals with a temporary status in
a receiver society and variable access to rights (even though they may
contribute to that society through taxation) utilise adaptive strategies
for support, conviviality and survival. In the four case studies explored
in this book, we label such circuits of support and survival ‘hubs of secu-
rity’. These hubs of security are conceived of as fluid formations that
emerge and dissipate in line with the day-to-day needs of temporary
migrants with little or no access to state support.

The Australian Context

In recent years, the Australian government has shifted the priority of

its migration programme from permanent toward migration towards
temporary employment visas. This shift has provided greater opportu-
nities for workers to enter Australia’s employment market, including
workers from throughout the Asian region. The Australia in the Asian
Century White Paper delivered on 28 October 2012 highlights the eco-
nomically and culturally transformative changes underway in Asia and
calls on Australian businesses and governments to take advantage of
these changes by forging partnerships in the Asian region. An exam-
ple of a popular temporary worker visa used to engage Asian employees
in Australia is the Business Long Stay—Standard Business Sponsorship
(Subclass 457) Visa. There are currently some 620,000 temporary work
visa holders in Australia (Ronson 2012). Key to the success of migration
management in the twenty-first century will be the strategies adopted to
regulate the other side of temporary migrations—unplanned and unau-
thorised migration. The new knowledge gained in this project will help
Australia and other high-immigration countries to develop policies and
practices that are more adaptable to the changing patterns of migration
as they relate to the labour market, local and transnational cultures and
transnational migrant communities.
Temporary employment arrangements for foreign workers are one
important facet of an increasingly precarious global labour landscape
that affects both migrant and domestic workers. The Australian Council
of Trade Unions estimates that 40% of Australia’s population is engaged
in ‘precarious employment’ (ACTU 2011; Howe 2012). However, a range
of factors, including low levels of education and skills training and lim-
ited knowledge of and access to collective bargaining workplace rights,
make migrant workers from poor countries of the Global South par-
ticularly vulnerable to discrimination and exploitation. The concept of
 Preface ix

denizenship describes migrants’ experiences of life on the fringes of soci-

ety, unable to access residency or citizenship rights while often paying
taxes and contributing to their host society in other ways. This living of
‘shadow lives’ is a growing problem in many parts of the world, including
Australia. In such a scenario, residents and citizens become ‘free riders’
of the labour of precarious migrants (Rubio-Marin 2000). While individ-
uals, groups and families seek to use migration as a pathway to fulfilling
basic needs through paid work, as well as a means to other imagined
futures, states restrict this pathway for some groups of migrants, often in
reaction to domestic political currents (Buroway 2014).
States are faced with complex and fast-changing priorities in balanc-
ing the rights of temporary workers with the interests of businesses and
long-term residents and citizens. The issue of precarious employment
and its effects on Australia’s migration programme has national as well
as global ramifications. Similarly, the treatment of migrant workers, both
by their employers and in the process of applying for temporary visas
and permanent residency, impacts the conditions of employment for
residents and the native-born. Nevertheless, temporary migrant workers
are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.
In a recent report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development found that migrants were more likely than native-born
workers to be employed in temporary jobs (OECD 2007). Gender also
remains an important factor, with women continuing to dominate
domestic and care work. Along with the broader services sector, domes-
tic and care work is characterised by casualisation and the employment
of migrants on a temporary basis, with reduced levels of unionisation
and bargaining power in demands for better wages and conditions. A
pathway to a regular migration status and permanent residency or citi-
zenship is one aspect of basic rights.
Before outlining the substance of the book in Chap. 1, we cite a recent
diagnosis of the times by the influential sociologist Saskia Sassen. Her recent
work on expulsions (2014) develops an idea of great relevance to the every-
day circumstances faced by temporary and particularly irregular migrants.
She is interested in identifying the ‘systemic edge’, or the economic, social
and biospheric tipping points which can lead to the expulsion of some
populations from meaningful participation in a society. Sassen writes:

This edge is foundationally different from the geographic border in

the interstate system. The focus on the edge comes from the core
hypothesis … that the move from Keynesianism to the global era of
x Preface

privatizations, deregulation, and open borders for some, entailed a

switch from dynamics that brought people in to dynamics that push
people out. (p. 211)

Sydney, NSW Claudia Tazreiter

Melbourne, VIC Leanne Weber
Melbourne, VIC Sharon Pickering
Melbourne, VIC Marie Segrave
Melbourne, VIC Helen McKernan
Copyright Permissions

The following material has been reproduced in a similar or identical

format with permission of the copyright holders from the published
works by the author listed below:

Extracts have been reproduced from Weber L., McKernan, H. and

Gibbon, H. (2013), ‘Trans-Tasman denizens: human rights and
human (in)security among New Zealand citizens of Samoan origin
in Australia’, Australian Journal of Human Rights, 19(3), 51–78.

xi
Acknowledgements

Our first acknowledgement is to the Australian Research Council for

financing the empirical study through the award of a Discovery Grant
(Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific, DP 1093107). This collaborative pro-
ject involved partners from Monash University and the University of
New South Wales (UNSW).
We are deeply indebted to all the research participants who
shared their personal migration experiences with us. In addition,
we acknowledge the invaluable assistance of non-governmental
organisation participants, community leaders and others who
helped shape the direction of the research, recruited interviewees
for the four case studies and provided unpublished reference mate-
rial. Many community leaders shared their understandings of the
migration challenges facing local communities in Australia and the
circumstances in their countries of origin that lead to temporary
migration to Australia. Linking the communities in Australia to their
countries of origin through family networks and themes was a critical
aspect of the research. None of this would have been possible without
the assistance of many people.
For assistance with the Tonga Case Study we thank, in particular, Alf
Fangaloka and Samuaella Fangaloka and their organisation, Treeminders,
in Robinvale, Australia. We also thank Network House, the Resource
Centre, Robinvale local councillor John Katis, and the Sunraysia Mallee
Ethnic Communities Council in Mildura. Thanks also go to the fol-
lowing people and organisations in Nuku’alofa Tongatapu, Tonga: the
Australian High Commission, the Tongan Ministry of Internal Affairs,
the Fangaloka family, the Catholic Women’s League Handicraft Centre
and the women’s sewing group.
For the Samoa Case Study, we thank Tia Roko (Radrekusa),
Chairperson for the NSW Council for Pacific Communities; Timothy
Tutaialeva’aiafilivae Wales, Community Liaison Officer, Pacific
Communities NSW; Mal Fruean, Campbelltown Council Community
Project Officer; Niu Fiu Paepaelauniu Fiu, Education Development
Unit Coordinator, Campbelltown; Ata Leota, Mt Druitt Family Referral
Service; Brisbane-based Inez Manu-Sione; Reverend Simalu, Samoan
Presbyterian Church, Fawkner; Reverend Risati Palemene, Cranbourne;
and ‘Uncle Tony’ from Barwon Heads. Natalia Pereira, former Pacific

xii
 Acknowledgements xiii

Island Youth Program Coordinator at UNESCO, provided invaluable

assistance with the organisation of the Samoa-based fieldwork.
For the Indonesia Case Study, Annie Blenkinsopp and Abu Rasyid of
the Indonesia Community Council provided invaluable assistance with
the project and insight into the Indonesian community in Australia.
We also acknowledge George Lombard, Eric de Haas and the Australia
Indonesia Association. The Indonesian interviewees who participated
in the research in Australia were generous in the contacts they provided
for Stage 2 of the project in Indonesia. The Association of Indonesian
Migrant Workers; Transient Workers Count Too; UN Women Bangkok;
Migrant CARE, Indonesia; the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union; the
Migrant Forum in Asia and the Women’s Movement for the Protection
of Migrant Workers all provided information and insight. Of special
note, we thank Taufiq Effendi for his research assistance in Indonesia.
Thanks are also due to Herry Setiawan and Nunik Anurningsih for their
kind hospitality and insights into Indonesian culture and society.
For the Chinese International Students Case Study, we thank David
McKenzie, the YMCA and Maria Han. To our research assistant, Li Fu
(Lily), we owe many thanks for travelling to mainland China armed
with gifts and tape recorders to conduct and translate interviews with
parents of international students studying in Australia.
We are especially indebted to colleagues at Monash University and
UNSW, who provided the research environment for the project. We were
fortunate to be aided by the work of the wonderful research assistants
Alison O’Connor, Rebecca Powell and Brigit Morris.
Finally, sincere thanks are extended to the team that helped to craft
this book for publication. The editorial team at Palgrave, including Julia
Willan, Harriet Barker and Dominic Walker, remained supportive in
the face of the inevitable complexities that arise in the production of a
multi-authored book. We were fortunate to be guided by the exceptional
editing skills of Julia Farrell in the preparation of the manuscript.
List of Tables

Table 2.1 Number of structured and unstructured interviews

for the four case studies 23

Table 2.2 Profile of Group 1 (community members)

structured interview sample for each case study 24

Table 5.1 Selected entitlements for holders of ‘unprotected’ SCVs 80

Table 5.2 Selected socioeconomic indicators from the 2011

Australian Census 83

Table 6.1 Number of structured and unstructured interviews

for the four case studies 107

xiv
List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Transnational case study methodology 26

Figure 2.2 Domains of security 28

Figure 2.3 Examples of the flashcards used during the

interview process to allow interviewees to rank
issues of importance 29

xv
List of Abbreviations

ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions

AE Australian employer
CBD Central Business District
CCP Chinese Communist Party
DEEWR Department of Education, Employment and Workplace
Relations
DFAT Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
DIAC Department of Immigration and Citizenship
DIBP Department of Immigration and Border Protection
DIMA Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs
GDP Gross domestic product
GFC Global Financial Crisis
ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
ICESCR International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights
ICRMW International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families
IELTS International English Language Testing System
ILO International Labour Organization
NGO Non-government organisation
NSW New South Wales
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development
PNG Papua New Guinea
PR Permanent residency
PSWP Pacific Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme
R2P Responsibility to Protect
SCV Special Category Visa
SWP Seasonal Worker Program
TTTA Trans-Tasman Travel Agreement
UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights
UK United Kingdom

xvii
xviii List of Abbreviations

UN United Nations
UNDP United Nations Development Programme
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization
UNODC United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime
UNOHCHR United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights
USA United States of America
1
In Search of ‘Fluid Security’:
The Outline of a Concept

This chapter introduces the key conceptual framework of the book and
sets out the problems faced by temporary migrants in Australia that
were revealed through the case studies carried out during the course
of our research. We consider contemporary migration patterns at both
a global and regional level (in the Asia-Pacific region) with reference
to key literature on migrant transnationalism, labour mobility and the
global market in tertiary education. The discussion explores the tension
between mobility and security by considering the nexus of human (in)
security, human rights and border control, with reference also to state
practices that create insecurity by criminalising some border crossing
activities and creating conditions conducive to the exploitation, mar-
ginalisation and victimisation of non-citizens.
The chapter ends by considering in broad terms the types of policy
approaches made possible by a new ethical framing of borders, citizenship
and rights, a framing that enables work towards reconciling national and
human security in the context of mobility and that challenges the prioriti-
sation of national security over human security in immigration and border
control policies. This reconciliation is what we refer to as ‘fluid security’.

Mobility in the Twenty-First Century: New Realities, New

Challenges

Patterns of migrant mobility have fundamentally changed in recent

decades, particularly affecting countries of immigration such as
Australia, also referred to as ‘settler’ societies (Dauvergne 2015). The
critique set forth in this book challenges the longstanding approach to
nation-building of predominantly one-way, permanent immigration. In
the twenty-first century, migration is organised and experienced in ways

1
2 Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

quite distinct from earlier periods, when planned and largely state-led
permanent or semi-permanent migration spurred the growth and eco-
nomic development of large-scale immigration countries like Australia.
Contemporary migration is increasingly characterised by multiple
movements and circularity rather than one-way mobility. New migra-
tion patterns are increasingly fluid and unpredictable: south–south,
north–south and south–north. Such changes emerge from a variety of
factors, fewer permanent work opportunities; increasingly transnational
family and friendship networks and wider social and political networks
that open up opportunities for new forms of mobility; and the demand
for a highly mobile yet dispensable workforce by neoliberal, globally
connected economies. In keeping with neoliberal values, states have
increasingly devolved responsibilities to individuals, with the result that
wellbeing and life outcomes have become disconnected from broader
socio-political processes. As David Harvey affirms, ‘Individual success
or failure is interpreted in terms of entrepreneurial virtues or personal
failings … rather than being attributed to any systemic property’ (2005,
pp. 65–6). Economic systems are increasingly globalised and must be
highly adaptive and reactive to transnational rather than domestic needs
and forces. Similarly, human mobility has become more globalised, with
individuals and families reacting and adapting to signals both within
and outside their country of birth or residence. These international mar-
ket forces buffet local and distant economies and individual livelihoods.
Human mobility has been subject to the regulation and indeed re-
regulation of borders in recent years, with uneven flows of authorised and
unauthorised, planned and spontaneous mobility across national borders
(Castles 2011a; Creswell 2010; Dauvergne 2008; Dauvergne and Marsden
2014; Sassen 2006). It is of critical importance to untangle the descrip-
tions of migrant categories: those who enter legally under migrant worker
schemes or on student visas (regular or legal migrants) versus smuggled
workers and unauthorised entrants, including those on temporary visas
who overstay and become classified as ‘illegal’ (irregular migrants). A
qualitative difference in the economic and socio-cultural security experi-
enced by high-skilled migrants in comparison to low-skilled or unskilled
migrants has been identified as significant. This contrast is attributable
not merely to the relative rewards for different types of work (economic
security), but also to the invisibility of the rights deficits that irregular
migrants face (cultural [in]security) (Barchiesi 2011; Pickering et al. 2013;
Tazreiter 2013a, b). That is, those migrants who cannot fully participate
in a society in which they reside, study or work—even if only tempo-
rarily—are likely to experience forms of social and cultural exclusion or
 In Search of ‘Fluid Security’: The Outline of a Concept 3

discrimination due to their ‘in-between’ status. In some cases, temporary,

and particularly irregular, migrants may also guard themselves from full
social immersion in a new society. Although this study focuses on tem-
porary migration that is planned and authorised, the space between legal
and illegal, authorised and unauthorised migration is fluid and porous.
Alongside the flow of global migrant labour, training and education
are becoming increasingly global commodities, with individuals seek-
ing opportunities outside their countries of citizenship or residence.
The recruitment of international students to Australia has only recently
evolved into the present business model of the marketisation of education.
In earlier eras, the view of education as a form of aid and development
in the Asia-Pacific region was promoted through such programmes as
the Colombo Plan. Australia was one of seven founding nations of the
Colombo Plan, which originated in 1950 to provide opportunities to
students in South and South-East Asia to undertake tertiary education
in western countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK
and, later, the USA (Meadows 2011). In 2014, the Australian government
announced a new Colombo Plan that seeks to build collaborations
within the Asia-Pacific region by funding Australian students to study in
the region for up to 1 year, with Indonesia a particular target destination.
The changes in migration patterns and the increase in temporary
rather than permanent migration are new phenomena that impact indi-
viduals, communities and the governments that regulate the flow of
populations. In this increasingly fluid context, temporary migrants are
more susceptible to forms of abuse and exploitation because their status
as non-citizens and non-permanent residents limits their options for
redress in the countries in which they work or study. At the same time,
temporary migration movements and the processes of globalisation
prompt social change within host societies and neighbouring states,
as well as in the migrants’ countries of origin, through reappraisal of
the fundamental definitions of citizenship, rights and residency. In this
book we are particularly interested in understanding the consequences
of temporariness for migrants and their families and for the host socie-
ties and countries of origin. While migrants are expected to cope with
the uncertainties and insecurities that accompany the temporary status
into which they have voluntarily entered, these are the very conditions
of life that, when experienced by citizens and residents (who are able to
access rights), can topple governments. There is an inherent contradic-
tion between the desire for certainty and security among the members of
a particular political community, often manifested in border control and
restrictions for newcomers, and the reality of neoliberal globalisation
4 Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

with its devolution of state responsibilities to the individual and the

associated de-linking between state and citizen.
Temporary migrants, particularly those whose daily subsistence is pre-
carious, are often invisible to the institutions, citizens and residents in
the countries where they live, study and work (Bigo 2002; Boltanski and
Chiapello 2005; Davis 2004; Appadurai 2006; Duffield 2008). The United
Nations estimates that more than 214 million migrants, often without
residency rights, live and work in a country other than that of their
birth or citizenship (United Nations Development Program [UNDP]
2009). The fact that many of these individuals find themselves without
adequate protections leads to a central problem with which this book
engages: the jurisdictional and theoretical gaps that prevent non-citi-
zen migrants from enjoying a secure life in a host country. The jurisdic-
tional gap arises from nation-state sovereignty and its taken-for-granted
logic of how protection is conferred on individuals. The theoretical gap
is found between theories of justice and membership that articulate a
post-national or supra-national world and the still-dominant, state-cen-
tric visions of security. The state-centric view is actualised in migration
systems, migration governance and, importantly, in the rhetoric of the
politics of migration—how belonging is imagined and communicated.
The International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW), adopted by
the UN General Assembly in 1990 and entered into force on 1 July 2003,
is a significant guide for countries hosting migrant workers, but no west-
ern state has as yet ratified the convention. Mindful of the lack of inter-
national legal obligations towards migrant workers, the International
Labour Organization (ILO) has produced a framework of non-binding
principles for a ‘rights-based’ approach to labour migration. The ILO
principles, meant to guide states in national policy and bilateral and
multilateral agreements, acknowledge the need for new approaches to
rights and entitlements for temporary non-citizens.
The gap in international norms identified by the ILO is most evident at
the level of national migration governance, where the state-based model
of citizenship and its attendant obligations leave temporary migrant
workers in vulnerable circumstances. Irregular or temporary migration
status may mean, for example, that individuals have variable access to
services such as healthcare, education and housing. Notably, scholars
have highlighted a range of bottom-up approaches that promote more
democratic, rights-based governance of international migration. In the
absence of consistent, rights-oriented action by states, transnational
social movements, unions and migrant associations are working towards
a rights-producing politics (Piper 2015).
 In Search of ‘Fluid Security’: The Outline of a Concept 5

The Role of the Corporatised State in Migration Governance

States remain central to the granting of rights to individuals through
formal membership (citizenship), while also extending partial rights
to residents and denizens (those inhabiting a middle point between
citizenship and illegality). Individuals born in poor or politically and
economically fragile states and those who have migrated but retain their
unauthorised status are largely excluded from the protections of citizen-
ship. The model of state-based citizenship, with its linked bundles of
rights, is increasingly recognised as a key driver of global inequalities
and related insecurities. The state-based citizenship model is premised
on strong forms of exclusion (Bauböck 2010; Bosniak 2006; Carens 2010;
Fraser 2009) and rests on inequalities embedded historically through
colonisation and empire (Mignolo 2011).
Recent migration scholarship has challenged the prevailing approaches
and methodologies applied to the study of the lives of migrants who
live in and between host societies and who often undertake multiple
migrations to ensure their basic survival. This challenge arises from both
conceptual and practical issues. Conceptually, migration has long been
theorised primarily through the prism of the nation-state and its eco-
nomic and demographic needs, with the nation-state seen as a ‘container’
of peoples, identities and culture (Amelina et al. 2012a, b; Wimmer and
Glick Schiller 2003). Over the past decade, migration and legal scholars
have increasingly pointed to problems in policy development and socio-
cultural relations that result from a logic that understands the social
realm as co-extensive with the national. This logic has not only domi-
nated theories of migration and belonging, but it has also embedded
itself in the administrative and policy-making functions of the state,
resulting in tangible and symbolic exclusion of some individuals and
groups. Scholars at the cutting edge of research on human migrations,
rights and belonging are building an ethical framework that eschews the
dominance of methodological nationalism, utilising a body of empirical
evidence on the circumstances of populations situated outside of state
protections. This new ethical framework has made significant contribu-
tions to new theories about the often abject life of populations who are
regularly invisible to institutions and have variable access to basic rights
(Benhabib 2004; Bigo 2002; McDowell and Wonders 2010; Nyers 2010;
Papastergiadis 2010; Tazreiter 2004, 2012, 2013a, b).
Sociological critiques of the state in the era of late capitalism, or
what some refer to as third-wave marketisation (Buroway 2014), lead
to accounts of globalisation and neoliberalism that focus on unequal
inclusion in market society (Polyani 1985; Piketty 2014). The critique
6 Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

of primary relevance to this study argues that inequalities discourses

ought to be central in attempts to understand the root causes of mobil-
ity. Capitalism thrives on constant change, chaos and destabilisation—
the constant creation of new enterprises and products and markets
for them. Political interventions at the national, regional and interna-
tional level operate to humanise the market (national and transnational
consumer protection schemes, attempts to avert multinational corpo-
rations avoiding taxation in the countries in which their goods and
services are purchased and attempts at a global financial transaction tax
for example). While the state plays a central role in such interventions,
civil society and methods to monitor and regulate the practices of trans-
national capital are also critical. Later in this chapter, a brief appraisal of
the literature dealing with new forms of citizenship and global justice
takes up these debates.
Many recent studies ask us to rethink the nexus of labour, capital and
freedom of movement. These studies elaborate a theorisation of precari-
ous populations with thick empirical detail of circumstances and forms
of contemporary slavery, establishing indentured and bonded labour as
social facts (Standing 2011, 2014; Ness 2011; Castles 2010).
Migration scholars have shown that the specifics of migrant categories
(voluntary/forced, legal/illegal, wanted/unwanted) are likely to increase
the precarious circumstances of individual migrants (Castles 2011a, b;
Hugo 2011). What is less clear is whether different models of govern-
ance at the national, regional or international levels would improve
the everyday circumstances of precarious migrant workers, or whether
migrants’ adaptation to changing conditions as they negotiate migra-
tion systems is independent of normative architecture. It is also unclear
whether the hyper-mobility of precarious migrant workers is a feature
of the low-skilled and irregular status more common to this category of
migrant worker, or whether hyper-mobility is likely to become a com-
mon feature of other categories of more advantaged migrant workers
(the high-skilled ‘cosmopolitan elite’). It can be hypothesised, for exam-
ple, that hyper-mobility without commensurate protections may well
lead to increased insecurities, driving even relatively advantaged individ-
uals and families into vulnerable circumstances, including illicit border
crossings, dependence on smuggling networks to facilitate travel, and
working in unsafe or bonded conditions outside national and interna-
tional labour protections.
The economic and political restructuring that is integral to neoliberal
globalisation is also a principal driver of migration, as are entrenched
poverty and cycles of violence and conflict (Harvey 2005). As Standing,
 In Search of ‘Fluid Security’: The Outline of a Concept 7

Ness and others have identified, the ‘global workers’ (whom Standing
calls the ‘dangerous class’) are one group of victims of the effects of
neoliberal globalisation in that the work they seek is increasingly
unstable, poorly paid and mobile (as dictated by the vagaries of where
transnational capital wishes to relocate its operations and workers
to maximise shareholder profits). As a result, increasing numbers of
migrants are pushed to the involuntary end of a migration continuum
(from voluntary to involuntary or forced migration), where rights, forms
of recognition and other ‘goods’ associated with citizenship are often
unattainable. These patterns are reproduced in all parts of the world
with regional and localised differentiation.

Migrant Transnationalism
Migrant transnationalism, and the associated conceptualisation of
new social spaces and cross-border communities that nurture social,
economic and political ties between and across time, space and terri-
tory, encapsulates a key set of articulations (Glick Schiller et al. 1992;
Portes et al. 1999; Faist 2000, 2010; Vertovec et al. 2003). This impor-
tant field of research, established in the early 1990s, has matured
through trajectories of critique and new theorising. Methodological
nationalism in both research and policy settings has been highlighted
as a dominant, deeply embedded approach that continues to naturalise
the sealed nature of the nation-state as a container of identities and
peoples, particularly when it comes to the question of immigration
(Wimmer and Glick Schiller 2002).
Further, in considering the roles of the state, the interstate system
and migrants’ own agency, the ‘regimes of mobility’ approach, proposed
by Nina Glick Schiller and Noel Salazar (2013), offers a framework that
addresses not just migration but also its relationship with immobility or
stasis, the connections between the local and the transnational, between
experiences of migration and ways of imagining it, as well as between
rootedness and cosmopolitan possibilities. The regimes of mobility
approach seeks to reveal, for instance, the co-dependence between the
movement of privileged individuals and the movement of stigmatised,
hidden and vulnerable irregular and temporary migrants: ‘It is the
labour of those whose movements are declared illicit and subversive
that makes possible the easy mobility of those who seem to live in a
borderless world of wealth and power’ (Glick Schiller and Salazar 2013,
p. 188). This approach offers a highly flexible theorisation of intersecting
regimes that normalise the mobility of some (travellers) while criminal-
ising and entrapping others. As is discussed further below, the regimes of
8 Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

mobility approach aligns with an approach taken by other scholars that

eschews the naturalised link between mobility and freedom (Standing
2011; Ness 2011).

The Living Border

‘The border’ is a concept rich with multiple meanings and differentiated
utility. In migration studies, the border obviously defines territory, and
thereby the gatekeeping of the state, yet the concept simultaneously
does the cultural work of sifting and sorting affiliations, loyalties and
social ties built across generations and often in defiance of the fixed
geography of the nation-state. As Mezzadara and Neilson (2013) argue
with great clarity, the polysemy of the very idea of the border miti-
gates against a linear analysis of migrant experiences. Rather, the bor-
der relates as much to markets and human experiences of being in the
world, the values and histories carried in the embodied self, as it does
to the literal outline of the nation-state. Such analysis, which begins
from the embodied reality of human life, acknowledges migrants not
merely as border crossers (legal or illegal) but as ‘living labor’:

There is also a peculiar tension within the abstract commodity form

inherent to labor power that derives from the fact that it is inseparable
from living bodies. Unlike the case of a table, for instance, the border
between the commodity form of labor power and its ‘container’ must
continuously be reaffirmed and retraced. This is why the political
and legal constitution of labor markets necessarily involves shifting
regimes for the investment of power in life, which also corresponds
to different forms of the production of subjectivity. (Mezzadara and
Neilson 2013, p. 19)

Another relevant thread of analysis examines borders as ‘paper barriers’.

In addition to physical borders, complex layers of law, or paper barriers,
mediate the opportunities of potential migrants. While human geogra-
phy focuses on terrain as a highly contested concept necessary to under-
stand mobility and the desire for migration, sociological authors tend
to study terrain as the place where state control is exercised and look at
state regulations to understand mobility. Torpey (2000) first used the term
‘paper walls’ to describe the control of entry, while Vasta (2010) explores a
‘paper market’. Rather than focusing on ‘walls’, Vasta connects the signifi-
cance of documentation to identity, and how to access cultural markers of
identity and entitlements to cultural rights in new locations. Taking the
document as the embodiment of state control, Bauböck (2001) compares
 In Search of ‘Fluid Security’: The Outline of a Concept 9

territorially bounded policies of migration in Canada, the USA, Israel and

the European Union. The result is the delineation of a set of legal meas-
ures aimed at denying access to territory and entitlements.

Human Security and Human Rights: Divergences

and Overlaps

There is often a gap between the theorisation of a problem and the resolu-
tion of the problem in practice. Theorists critique policy-makers for their
narrow and often reactive approaches to policy development, and policy-
makers in turn critique theorists for operating in a rarefied, ungrounded
context. This gap is patently evident in the field of defining, advocating
for and implementing the rights and security of persons. Serious considera-
tion of human rights and security in the modern era can be dated to the
post-World War II development of international human rights law and the
subsequent decades that saw reconfigurations of development as ‘human
development’ and the emergence of the concept of human security.
The topic of human security appears in international debates in the
early 1990s in describing generalised risks that could potentially affect
everyone—risks such as the effects of climate change, extreme poverty
and international terrorism (McAdam 2010; O’Brien et al. 2010; Piguet
et al. 2011). As an analytic tool, human security first appears in the
UNDP report of 1994, where generalised risks to security are listed as
‘unchecked population growth, disparities in economic opportunities,
excessive international migration, environmental degradation, drug
production and trafficking, international terrorism’ (UNDP 1994, p. 34).
The report recognises the insecurity of persons as integral to under-
standing potential state and international instability. Also fundamental
to the use of the concept is the emphasis on the security of persons
(the human) as not separate from state security, but embedded within
it. That is, insecure people will result in insecure states. Importantly,
while traditional membership (citizenship) matters in the human secu-
rity approach, the insecurity of persons outside national borders also
matters. Through the ethic of international governance, governments
are asked to participate in the protection of citizens of other states—as a
matter of self-interest but also in recognition of the shared responsibili-
ties of states (see, for example, Howard-Hassman 2012, p. 90).
An example of the ethic of international governance is the
Responsibility to Protect (R2P), first articulated in a report commis-
sioned by the Canadian government as part of a human security ini-
tiative. The purpose of the R2P is to shape and legitimise international
10 Fluid Security in the Asia Pacific

interventions in cases where states fail to protect their own citizens, and
in this way it aligns with the core concepts of human security. The R2P
agenda promotes the ‘remedial responsibility’ of states to offer effec-
tive protection against vulnerabilities to their members and others. The
ethical basis of the R2P and the spirit of human security rest on states
with the capacities to alleviate the insecurity of persons outside of their
own citizens and residents. Some scholars argue that access to immigra-
tion regimes such as temporary foreign labour programmes (such as the
Seasonal Workers Programme outlined in later chapters) is part of this
holistic approach to the protection of those who lack social and eco-
nomic rights and do not have the benefit of the full protections of their
state (Straehle 2012; Vietti and Scribner 2013).
The traditional understanding of human security as synonymous with
state security has been challenged [or ‘raises difficulties’], as has [does]
the approach that aligns state security with territorial sovereignty that
actively excludes, deports and criminalises. Over the two decades of the
proliferation of the human security agenda, the concept has also argu-
ably been overutilised and thereby stripped of precision. Critics con-
tend that the overuse of the concept of human security has resulted in
a hollowing out of related concepts, such as human rights and human
development. Amartya Sen argues for the important complementary
role human security discourse plays in discussions of human rights and
human development and offers clarity on the reach and limitations of
the concept of human security:

The majority of people are concerned with the security of their own
lives and of the lives of other people like them. This general concern
has to be directly addressed, and any understanding of security in
more remote terms (such as military security or so-called national
security) can be integrated with it to the extent that this makes
human life more secure. (2014, p. 18)

While the policies and associated programmes, initiatives and priorities of

national security may well be important for people’s lives, it ought also to
be remembered that this domain of security is removed from people’s daily
needs and activities. It is the more mundane issues, events and resources
of daily life that shape the quality of people’s experiences and interactions.
While recognising the legitimacy of both the narrow and broad
interpretations of human security, Taylor Owen acknowledges prob-
lems with the definitional hybridity of human security as a concept.
In response, he has proposed the use of a threshold in clarifying how
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
—Ja.… moar, de boonestorm, hep main.… hep main
d’r puur stroatarm moakt! driftte nu vuurrood van
woede, ouë Gerrit uit. Ik had ’r dî jòar t’met net komme
kenne! en nou he’k ’n poar duusend gulde skade..
hoho! daa’t is gain snoepduut hee?.. dâ skol d’r gain
slok op ’n borrel hee?

Giftig-snel broddelde ie z’n tegenspraak af, op ’n

hatelijken toon die den notaris kregelde.

—Best best.. maar! [382]

—Nèe niè bèstig! nie bèstig! ’t Is puur om te griene..

om te griene! aa’s je je heule laife tug fesoenlik weust
bin! en dá’ niemoant nie dà op je weut te f’rhoàle.. en
aa’s je poert.. en poert! van den ochtut tut den oafud..
en je tolt in je aige van de sorrige.. en je valt dan tug in
de lus!.. da set d’r vast gain sooie an de daik hee?..
daa’t is om te griene.. daa’s gain vetje! eenmoal
andermoal! dan weê je nie woàr je hain mot! daa’s
veertig joar ploeter!.… Nou soekt d’r ’t weer kapsies..
en kwait bi-je! kwait!

Ouë Gerrit’s stem huilde van zelfontroering. En toch

was ie woest op de grinnekende heeren, die hem
maar in ’n kringetje beloeren bleven.—En die stomme
burgemeester zei maar niks, keek maar minachtend
op ’m neer. Nou keken de heeren allemaal even sip
om z’n uitval. Alleen notaris was er beu van en Dr.
Troost bulderde:

—Die er meelij met jullie volk heeft is zelf voor de

haaiê.. c’est de la blague! je hebt je waar gehad, dus
je moèt betalen.. dat is wet, en wet is recht! mijn zoon
zegt terecht.. dat jullie ’n slavenmoraal hebt.. en..

—Kijk eens Hassel, goeiigde weer notaris, ik heb

waarachtig geen plezier om voor joù te betalen. Ik sta
voor mijn principalen verantwoordelijk.—Er is ’n grens!
Jij.… jij begrijpt dat verward.. Jij nièt betalen, en ik wèl
betalen. Waar zou dat heen? Er is ’n prachtig
aardbeijaar geweest!

—En de boonestorm, de boonestòrm, giftte ouë Gerrit

knorrig, dá’ swaig meneer de netoàris moar van.. en
heul Wiereland is d’r daas deur!

—Er zijn heele moestuinen omgelegd, vervloekt,

schoot hatelijk-bulderend Dr. Troost er tusschen, geen
kracht meer in de boonen, je zoudt ze.…

—Gelukkig, dat je nog ’n appelje in je broeikast hebt,

voor de dorst, lachte Stramme, en mee lachte fijntjes
Dr. Beemstra.—

—Kijk Hassel, goeiigde de notaris weer, ’t is mij

heusch niet om je val te doen, maar ik moet
verantwoord zijn. Als ik nog meer van die klanten had,
zou ik zelf op de valreep staan.. kijk nu.… [383]

—Moar main fésoèn! màin fesoèn, huilde de Ouë in

zelf-opwinding.

—Je fatsoen, dat weten we allen, is onaantastbaar! je

hebt je altijd als ’n brave kerel gedragen. Ieder heeft
met je te doen. Maar jij bent niet meer wat je was. Je
kunt geen toezicht meer houên op je zoons,.. en die
zou ik voor al ’t geld van de wereld niet willen hebben,
hoe zuinig ik ook op mijn klantjes ben.. en de armsten
onder jelui steun!.. Maar dat zijn hassebassen, geen
land mee te bezeilen. Als jij niet altijd zoo fatsoenlijk
was gebleven, zou ik je ook nooit zóó lang
gekrediteerd hebben, maar je was netjes, geen zuiper,
beleefd, stil … maar nou wor je oud.…

—Moar main fesoèn.. main fesoèn, bibberde

mondzenuwend met òpschokkende huilstem ouë
Gerrit,—ikke sit hier àl fairtig joar t’met.—

—Best man, maar je moet kunnen betalen.. ik heb je

destijds ’n drieduuzend vijfhonderd hypotheek
gegeven op je brokje grond … Dat is nou ’n heelen tijd
geleden … je grond is er niet slechter op geworden,
dat zal ik niet zeggen.. je hebt je rente, altoos moeilijk,
maar toch betaald,.. en jij hadt je grond vrij.. Toen heb
je bij meneer Stramme ’n tweede hypotheek
genomen, nog eens van duizend pop … ’n slecht jaar,
leelijke oogst.… tegenvallers hier,.. tegenvallers daar..
twee koeien dood, nou.. nou.. zat je.. zat je an de
grond.. en.…

—Moar ieders tuinder weut tug wá’ sain boel woardig

is hee? hoho! uwes wist wèl wa je déè hee?.. stotterde
woedend ouë Gerrit bleekig van drift,—main grond is
d’r nou miskien ’t dubbele woardig.…

—Soo, nijdigde nù Beemstra stroef, weet iedere

tuinder dat, maar weet iedereen dan wàt ik bovendien
van joù nog.. te vòrderen heb?.. Nou kerel maak je me
boos!.. Nog brutaal op den koop toe. Als jou rommel
bij elkaar door de heeren taxateurs op zeven à acht
 duizend gulden geschat is,.. mag ’t veel zijn. En tel
eens òp wat ik van jou.… te.. vorderen heb … met alle
onkosten daaraan vast? Wat drommel wou jij nog
spreken! [384]

—Moar.. main fesòèn.. gilde Hassel in

zenuwopwinding, en stemmestotter, zonder dat hij
zich met woorden vèrder door z’n angstdrift heen kòn
slaan.—

—Wat jou fatsoèn, bulderde Troost, betàlen dàt is

fatsoen! ben jij bedonderd kerel!

—Je fàtsoen, je fatsòen, lachte ironisch Beemstra,

wèl, dat is ’n mooi ding, maar betàlen is mòoier! Je
bent altijd ’n knappe kerel geweest, daar zal ik niets
van zeggen, en ik heb je altijd geholpen, maar nou
loopt ’t de spuigaten uit.—Dan zie ik je met die.. dan
met die scharrelen.. je loopt te veel naar notarissen
man!

—Hoho! daa’s jokkes! barstte ouë Gerrit uit, plots

driftig van z’n stoel opveerend, ik heb je nuuwte
kukkerint heeldergoar nie sien.… hai waa’s d’r selffers
main komme opsoeke!—Noù, nou dâ je ’t weute wil..
ik seg moàr.. daàs ’n kerel.. die help je nie van de wal
in de sloot!.. die gaif je nie los geld mi sonder dâ.. dâ
je ooit vroagt wort.. hoe of wâ van rinte.. moar aa’s je
je effe buite menair de netoaris wâ doen wil.. kraig je
de raikening thuis … juustemint! juustemint aa’s tie
weut dâ.. je da je.… niks niks hept!.… Nainet
menair … soo hew.. hew je d’r al veul van onster slag,
stroatarm moàkt.. jai gaif d’r losse.. duutjes.. mit vaif
pèrsint.. Moàr soolang.. oploope.. tu je weut.. daa’t
 kan he? Hoho! soo hew je d’r veul van onster slag
f’rmoord … moàr.. die kukkerint.. daa’s ’n fint! die
hellept d’r nou … bai de boonestorm.. aa’s ’n engel!
Enne wai.. wai kenne d’r van joù nie los.… wai sitte an
jou vast aa’s pek! weut jai?… jai hoalt d’r ’t vel of’r
onster oore.. hoho! jai frait d’r de noagels van onster
flees.. jullie bint bloedsuigers doàr, daa’s màin weut!

De kring stond strak; alle gezichten in wreeden kijk op

ouë Gerrit, die plots voelde dat ie te ver was gegaan.
Notaris Beemstra keek, kéék; z’n neus trilde, en z’n
mond schokte van drift.

—Jij bént kranzinnig man.… Ik zal je maar niet an de

letter van je woorden houên, anders zou je … met
getuigen hier,.… nog leelijk te vinden zijn. Maar ’t is
nou genòeg [385]ook! Eén November gèld.. anders je
boel an de paal! Ik had je eerst nog wille helpen, met ’t
zoeken naar borgen.. omdat jij altijd ’n fatsoenlijke
vent bent geweest,—maar nou ben je door ’t dolle
heen.. Eén November gèld, .… of de boel an de paal!
nou weet je ’t. Als betaaltermijn van àl de anderen
daar is, sta jij er ook, of ’t is met je gedaan.

Notarisstem klonk hard, streng en sterk. Ouë Gerrit

had ’m woest gemaakt daareven, door den konkurent
erbij te halen, die altijd tegen ’m werd uitgespeeld als
„zoo goèd”, zoo „bereidwillig” en „hulpvaardig”. Wat
drommel, hij kon ’r ’n beroerte van krijgen van nijd, als
ze ’r over begonnen. En nou die lammeling van ’n ouë
vent die ’t ’m daar pal in z’n gezicht smeet, waar de
heeren bijzaten. Nee, dat was te èrg. Eerst had ie niet
zòò stráf willen optreden, nou moèst ’t.—
Ouë Gerrit, zelf geschrikt van z’n eigen heftigen uitval,
stond te beven van ontdaanheid, plukte zich in de
baard, trok zich aan de lokken, in bange verlegene
nerveusheid. Hij wou terugkrabbelen. ’t Viel in één
over ’m, zoo voor die strakke, deftig-gekleede heeren
staand, wat ’n afstand ’r toch was, tusschen hèm en
tusschen al die voorname stille dingen om ’m heen.
Inéén voelde ie zich schuldig, zwaar schuldig aan
brutaliteit en hij begreep maar niet, dat de notaris ’m
niet inéén de deur had uitgetrapt. Zware angst voor
z’n val pakte ’m weer beet, onrustte in ’m, bracht heel
z’n denken aan den zwabber. Hij voelde wèl dat ze ’n
gruwelijken hekel hadden aan zijn zoons; dat zij die op
alle manieren konden tegenwerken, dat de heele kliek
van de deftigheid, de voorschotman, de dokter, de
notaris, de burgemeester, allemaal tegen hèm gingen
staan. Dat er geen snars van ’m terecht kwam op die
manier, als ie ze later weer broodnoodig kreeg, om
gunstjes en flikflooierijtjes.—Nou moest ie zich maar
weer verdeemoedigen.

Alteratie zat ’r in z’n zenuwschokkenden mond, angst

in z’n krampende handen, die door z’n baard plukten,
en krommer bochelde z’n rug, als of ie al meelij wilde
opwekken, met z’n licht gebrek.—

Hij vond plots alles heel deftig in de kamer!.. de

prachtige [386]gordijnen, de groote schrijftafel, met al
die groote kopij-boeken en portefeuilles … de
bloemetuin achter, de kleeden.… in de waranda.… Hij
rook ’t, snoof ’t, deftig en hoog! Ja, hij most de boel
vergoeilijken met meelij, met verkleineering.—Hij
most, hij most, want inéén, heel scherp, voelde ie
waar ie heenging met z’n spullen? Waar die te bergen,
als ie geen woon meer had? En sterker dan ooit
begreep ie nou, nòu juist, hoe gehecht ie nog was an
z’n brok grond, z’n huisbullen, z’n gereedschap, an z’n
naam, en z’n schijn-fatsoen. En de heele kliek van
heeren tegen ’m. Zij, de lui van den kerkeraad, van ’t
Gemeentebestuur; notaris, de wethouër, de dokter, die
schatrijke landbezitter, de voorsten van alles en nog
wat. Heel Wiereland toch moest bij hèm terecht. En de
kassier en voorschieter!

.. hoho! dâ heule stel nou d’r allain teuge sain.. dá

waa’s d’r te veul.. sellefers aa’s de boel an ’t poaltje
gong. Dâ most baidraaie sain! In snelle
gedachtenwarrel, zwirrelde dat allemaal woordloos en
toch klaar door zijn heet brein.

—Hoho! netoaris, most in main ploas stoane.….…..

Zacht brak ie af … denke.. nou.. denke.. om ’t goed te
plooie nie te haastig.… en sachies àn.. Nie te gauw
baidroaie.—Voort sprak ie weer..

—Nou he’k.. he’k puur fairtig joàr.. dag.. an dàg main

aige stukkie grond had.. poert..! poert.. hoho!.. vier en
vaif en nie g’nog.… daa’s gain pap ete!.. Enne.. nou..
nou he’k alletait main rinte betoald enne nou.…
komp!.. de boonestorm! enne daar goan je de boel
veur d’ waireld! doàr hew je je aige op swait, op
ploertert.. dag en nacht! Daa’s je molle mi de klomp
hee?.. En nou kraig je gain duut veur àl je
deurpoere.… Nou mo’k main stukkie grond of.. d’r of
joagt aa’s ’n hond! die d’r schurft hewt! Is dá nie om te
griene?..
 Notaris weut daa’k alletait main fesoèn houë hew!
daa’k nooit nie suipe hew! daa’k persint waa’s woàr
ikke most weuse! Enne nou bi’k soo achter op! Nou..
miskien mit twai goeije oogste he’k de boel inhoàlt!..
En nou.. mo’k op main ouë dag.. den bedel op. Daa’s
hard netoaris? daa’s hard-stikke ellèndig!.… Netoaris
ik smaik ie … kaik wa je doent! mit ’n [387]ouë fint van
bai de saifetig die s’n heul laife s’n fesoen houê
hewwe!.… uwes weut daa’k ’n ongelukkig waif hew.…
de dokter ook, da main t’met arm moàkt hep! Ikke
smaikie hep d’r meelai! Aa’s ikke strak-en-an wâ nie
bestig sait hew.… f’rgaif ’t main.… main kop is d’r
daa’s.… ’t-en-rammelt hier.… hew d’r meelai mee.…
’n kerel.… die dur poert hew.… s’n heule laife
langest.…

Ouë Gerrit had uitgesproken. Z’n gezichtskreukels

jammerden; op z’n tronie groefde hartzeer.—En z’n
stem had gekreund, half gesnikt.—

Er was deemoed in z’n bocheligen rugstand, en z’n

handen, scheurden en rafelden franje van z’n petje
los, kramperig-nerveus.—

’t Heele gezelschap, had bedrukt-ernstig en stil

geluisterd, maar Beemstra wou ’r ’n eind aan zien.

—Nou Hassel, ik vergeef je graag je brutale woorden,

die ook niet van jou zijn. Je bent opgeruid!—Maar
daar schiet de zaak toch niet mee op. Ik kan, heusch,
ik mag niet langer.. konsideratie gebruiken … wil ik niet
zelf de grond ingeboord worden. Heb je borgen voor ’t
tekort?
 —Borgen, borge? snikte ouë Gerrit’s stem, vast niet,
vast nie.. daa’s daan.. ik hep d’r lest twee had veur de
koebeeste.. Moar nou is ’t daan! nou sullie d’r main
arremoe-en kenne … mit de boonestorm.…

—Dan is ’t blok gevalle Hassel, je begrijpt zelf dat..

—Ik smaik ie netoaris main fesoèn! onderbrak

huilbeverig ouë Gerrit, woar mo’k hain?! op main ouë
dag.. aa’s de boel onder.. main baine wort weghoalt!
Woar mo’k hain? Ikke kèn d’r vast gain werk meer
finde! he’k gain kracht veur! Nou, si’k doàr mit ’n daas
waif.. en kooters!.. Woar mo’k hain? Ik smaik ie
netoaris sien d’r wa je doent? kaik ’t nog rais ’n joàrtje
an! Main heule laife is d’r in uwes hand! Aa’s d’r nog ’n
goed joar-en-komp!.…

—Nee.. néé Hassel, ’t gaat niet, ’t gaat niet! Dat zijn

dezelfde praatjes van ’t vorige jaar. Ik kàn, ik mag niet
langer! Dat is overrompelen! Dat gaat ’r elk jaar dieper
in! Je hebt [388]kinderen, je hebt al met anderen over
grond onderhandeld voor hun. Nou, die moeten dan
maar voor jou werken en je hebt nog ’n duitje bij de
Bekkema’s.

—En ’n meid waarvan ze heel wat leelijks zeggen,

bulderde dokter Troost hardvochtig en wreed-gulzig
woest, dat hij Guurt niet te pakken kon krijgen.

—Lailiks.. lailiks segge, bitste ouë Gerrit weer, daa’t

segge hullie t’met van de heule waireld.. van uwès
ook! dokter! van ùwes ook!
 Hij driftigde weer, vergetend z’n smeek toon van
daareven.

—Kom Beemstra, maak ’r nou maar ’n eind an, hè?

zei Stramme van uit de hoogte, bang dat er nog iets
tegen hem uitbraakte, waar burgemeester bij zat … Er
is vergadering en ’t heeft geen nut langer.…

—Zoo is ’t.… ik heb er niets meer bij te voegen. Tot

één November Hassel, en gaat ’t dan niet, dan is de
boel aan de paal! onherroepelijk! adieu hoor! zie je te
helpen!—

Ouë Gerrit was gebluft en nijdig naar de deur

gestrompeld, op z’n kousen, zacht, en de bulderstem
van Dr. Troost hoorde ie achter zich schaterhoonen:…
iets van stroopersras.… gemeen vollekie.. blijft
gemeen vollekie!

Z’n klompen schoot ie aan op de mat, en vuisten in z’n

jekkerzakken bijeengekrampt van drift, klos-sjokte ie
de deur uit.—

Nou voelde ie pas, heel klaar dat ie verloren was voor

goed, hij en z’n boel.—Het schrijnde, ziedde in ’m van
huilende stikkende woede.—Dat tuig, had ie zich nou
maar niet zoo vernederd, en de waarheid blijven
zeggen. Want hij wist wel, hoe ze allemaal knoeiden
met taxeeren en veilingen, en grond en verbouwing.
Hoe ze duizenden en duizenden wonnen met hun
spekulatie op pachtertjes; met hun los geld, en
voorschot en afrekening en rente. En èven helder, in
z’n woede, voelde ie, dat de heele streek door hen
vermoord werd, door de slokops van grond en geld. Zij
waren gedekt, ook bij hém.… Wat zoo lief helpen leek,
werd dubbel en dwars door hun zelf betaald. En al
armer werden zij, al meer konden zich ophangen.
[389]Dat reed dwars door hùn land, meneer de notaris
in eige span, mèt z’n kinderen, aldegoar geleerden.…
En raik, raik, stinkraik hoho! en noakend in de ploas
komme!.. Nou,.. al kon die dan nie laise en nie
skraife.… da vatte ie tug.. daa’t stele waa’s. Nou waa’s
hai d’r d’r uut, veur goed, omdàt tie de fint beleedigd
had! Tug stom van sain … Enn … veur wâ gong die
nou nie in hande van de aere netoaris? Hoho! waa’s
aldegoar te loat! Veuls te loat!.…..

Nooit had ie gedacht zoo moeilijk van z’n boel te

kunnen scheiden. Nou ging ie ’n wintertje tegemoet!
zou d’r ’n jaartje worden.

En de heele boel, nou zoomaar, onder z’n klompen

weg! weg! voor goed!

In onrustigen peins strompelde ie door de straatjes

naar huis, niemand groetend, niemand ziend. Er
spande hevige angst in ’m, voor dingen die gebeuren
gingen. Maar toch, heel diep in z’n kop, brandde ’n
satanisch-lekker gedachtetje, dat ie ìets overhield, dat
’m geen sterveling kon afnemen.. Z’n spullen.. z’n
prachtspullen.—

Met hem was ’t nou toch gedaan, finaal!

Toch kon ie stikken van woede, dat ze’m z’n naam, z’n
fatsoen te grabbel gooiden; dat zijn boel aan de paal
ging, al begrepen ze dat de boonenstorm ’t gelapt
had. Nou kon ie zelf genadebrood vreten, straatarm
 en z’n broer ’r van lollen dat hìj gekelderd was. Nou
zou ie rondkijken naar ’n huisje.… met ’n brokje
kelder, voor hèm.… Eerst de spulle … had ie s’n heule
laife lang doalik veur sorgt.… z’n spulle.… En dan..
moar goan.. soo ’t wil!— [391]
Vierde Boek
 HERFST.

[393]

[Inhoud]
 TIENDE HOOFDSTUK.

—Wil Wimpie d’r nog effetjes af? goeiigde Ant naar

trieste bedje van ’t kereltje.

—Joa moe.… heul groag.… effetjes moar!

—Och vrouw Seune, wou je main effetjes ’n handje

hellepe? kaik!.… Nou pak ikke d’r sain an ’t hoofie
hee?.. enne nou jai d’r an ’t linkerbaintje! sien je?—
Kees naimt sain alletait in één setje.… Moar da durrif
ikke nie! vast nie.… Soo!.. joà juustig.. Heb je sain nou
vast vrouw Seune?.. soo!.. mooi! joa fintje! kaik d’r
moar nie soo bang.… Nou ikke.. onder.… sain.…
nekje! Soo liefeling?

Zachtjes droegen ze Wimpie bij ’t hooge raam in ’t

goud-fijne zevende licht van laat-Septemberdag.

Z’n oortjes trechterden steenbleek, wijd van z’n hoofd,

en z’n weggevreten beenig, ontvleesd kopje,
doodshoofde grauw-groen in den zonnigen
buitenglans.

Paars geader takte langs z’n ingeholde apige

slaapjes, en hol-onkenbaar z’n groote groen-blauwe
oogen staarden uit de ziektewallen boven z’n
vermagerden neus.

—Mo je nou nog rais loope, main mannetje?

 —Joa moe.. heul groag!.… aa’s ’t kàn, bedeesde
zacht en hijgend z’n doodziek stemmetje.… kaik!.. nou
glai.… ikke.… d’rof.… paa’s d’r op! Soo goed! Vrouw
Seune paa’s d’r op! main dai! soo! ’n endje op sai!
Nou.. mot u main.. ef.. effe.… teuge de.. toafel.. rand..
loate anleune?—

Zwaarder hijgde z’n borstje van vermoeienis. Stervend

verklonk z’n stemmetje, en heel zoetjes was ie van
Ants schoot gezakt. Z’n vuil ponnetje kabaaide
flodderig om z’n stakkerige [394]beentjes, en z’n
vergeelde geraamtehandjes, zwakkelijk-paars
doorpeesd, grepen in angstigen span den tafelrand.
Hij waggelde op z’n doorgezakte knietjes, en z’n lijfje
duizelde zachtjes. Even sloot ie z’n oogen, waar de
leeden, aderfijn en porcelijn-teer doortakt overheen
kapten, stil, doodziek, broos. Vrouw Zeune was links
gaan staan, klaar om hem op te vangen, als ie viel; en
Ant, angstig kromde achter hem d’r magere armen,
zonder dat ze ’t Wimpie merken liet. Zoo stond ’t
mannetje èven als veraapt geraamtetje in ’t herfstlicht,
dat helder invrat op z’n doodskopje, groèf in de zwarte
holheid van z’n oogwallen, en de zieke
oudemannetjesrimpels op z’n beenderige slapen,
neus en mond, smartelijk omscherpte. Foetus-groot
en karikaturig zwalkte z’n hoofd op slap spierloos
nekje, en kroppig zwoegde z’n uitpuntend strotje
angstig naar adem. Om z’n bloote halsje hing z’n
rozenkrans, waarvan de glorie-zij-den-Vader’s zilverig
blinkerden in ’t wasemgouden licht.

—Oarem skoap! t’met ’n dooskop! ’t is sonde!

verzuchtte onbarmhartig vrouw Zeune ontsteld.
 Wimpie lachte, fijntjes, wijs-smartelijk, met stille
ontroering in ’m, over de plompe uitroep van
buurvrouw. Hij kende die gezegdes, en voelde ze
rustiger dan ’t valsche gepraat over z’n goèd uitzien,
woordjes om ’m alleen maar moed te geven.—

Sterker trilden z’n beentjes, en achter ’m de

krampende mager-uitvingerende handen en
armenhoepel van z’n moeder.—

—Hou je je aige nog liefeling?

—Ka.. aik moe! hijgde z’n borstje.… nou.. wou.. ik..

ikke.. van dà.… noà.… dà.… ah!.… hoekkie!.…
dan.… ke’k.… teu.… ge.… foa.. der.. seg..ghe! daa’.…
’k.. f’e.… doag.… weer.… lo.… ooope.… he ..ep! .…
dan.… is.… tie.… blai.…

Vrouw Zeune rilde. Maar Ant keek norsch. Want ze

haatte Kees erger dan ooit, nou ie, na haar miskraam,
gejuicht had over ’t dooie kind dat gekomen was. Dat
leek zoo zondig, zoo gemeen! Zij wist wel, dat ’t van
haar val was, dien avond op ’t land, toen ze stil,
zonder hulp, zich aan ’t boompje had willen ophalen,
en terugsmakte.… [395]

Nou kon ze ’m vloeken, ook omdat ze zag, hoe hij

Wimpie behekste, en ’m al maar dingen liet zeggen,
die ’t schaap niet eens wílde zeggen.

Wimpie hield zich kramp-stijf vast aan den tafelrand,

de vingertopjes bloedloos bleek uitgedrukt van ’t
angstige persen. En vreemd nu schoof ie voort, langs
den tafelrand, telkens in ’n strompelig half-draaitje van
 z’n vermolmd karkasje, één hieltje dwars tegen de
wreef ingehaakt.

Vrouw Zeune keek bang, maar Wimpies vrome oogen

straalden van pret, dat ie ’t met de strompelend halve
draaitjes van z’n bevende hieltjes, zoovèr nog
gebracht had. Aan ’t eind van z’n hoekje, klamde
noodzweet op z’n aderverzwollen doodskopje,
zwijmden plots z’n oogappels wèg in ’t geel-zieke wit,
dat Ant ’r van schrok en ’m oppakte. Vrouw Zeune
schoot ook toe in schrik, raakte z’n rechterdijtje. ’n
Scheur-gil, weenend en hevig smartelijk martelde uit
z’n mager kropje, en z’n bleeke gezicht kermde in ’t
cellige raamlicht.—

—Hailige moagd! je hep sain stootte, schreide Ant

ontzet, lei ’m zachtjes tegen ’r borst aan.—Vrouw
Zeune stond verblokt van dollen schrik. En uit ’t diepe
halfduister van de lage, van valeriaan doorzogen
kamer, tastte armkrommig uit kleine erfdeurtje, vrouw
Rams, en scherp snerpte ’r doordringende stem naar
Ant wat er gaande was.

—Niks moeder.… hai stoan d’r alleweer bai!

Vrouw Rams, schuifelend, schoot uit de donkerte voor

’t vallicht van ’t raam, dat ’r paarse rok eerst in
verborgen kleur duisterend, nu òpgroeide in de kamer.
Haar vossensnuit spitste bitsig, en d’r schaduwen-
staar lag omfloerst van onrustige stilte als bij blinden,
die luisteren met oògen. Haar handen tastten krommig
weer vooruit, en ’r lijf schuifelde naar vrouw Zeune.
 —Nou mot ie ’t f’doag mit moagere moaltje doen,
scherpte ze.… ’t onsie flees van Hummer op de
hoek.…

—Hoe he’k ’t nou? mot ’n sieke nou ook de fraidoàg

houê? barstte vrouw Zeune mannig-woest uit.

—Da wil die sellefers buurfrouw! Weus jai d’r knap en

kraig jai d’r fraidoag ’n stukkie flees in! Daa’s puur ’n
hailige [396]mi die jonge! De koapeloan stoan d’r
sellefers veur! Die is d’r tug soo ellendig-mooi op s’n
geloof hee?.…

Ze straalde Ant dat ze ’t zoo zeggen kon, dwars tegen

Kees in, en vrouw Zeune verbromde wat
onverstaanbare ruwe dingen om Wimpie niet te
krenken.—

Bij de donk’re schouw, in scheemrig goudzachtgen

glans van raamlichtafschijn, zat grootvader Rams te
pruimen en te spuwen, alsof ie nooit nog was
opgezeten. Tusschen ’t gesprek verrochelde ie z’n
slijmhoest, telkens scheurender en heviger. Eindelijk
wrevelde vrouw Zeune er weer uit:

—Nou, moar.… ikke sou ’t sain tòg d’r instoppe.… ’t Is

tòg moar ’n hufter! die jonge mot d’r fraite.… die malle
froome kuure.… ken die s’n moag nie mee sette.…
gekkighaid is gekkighaid!

Ouë Rams verrochelde z’n hoest zoo hevig, dat Ant

vrouw Zeune niet meer verstond, ’t Bleek-starende
kopje van Wimpie lag te sidderen tegen ’r borst, onder
de brullende slijmige hoest-scheuren van z’n
 grootvader, die naar lucht snakte in krampigen
longenhijg, dat ie schokte op z’n stoel, z’n beenen
opspartelden, en z’n gele tronie wegzonk tusschen de
schouders. Uit de donk’re lage kamer verklonk ’t onder
de schouw als rochelend geschrei, plots afgebroken
door slijmgeslik, dat stikte in z’n strot.

—Spoeg tog uit foader! spoeg tog uit! Je stikt d’r t’met
op je ploas, angstigde Ant. Maar Ouë Rams, één
beefhand in angstklem vastgegrepen aan
schouwrand, barstte liever in reutel, dan z’n long er uit
te braken, zooals ie in stomme hardnekkigheid bleef
denken.

Z’n gele kop, even belicht in den valen goudschijn van

’t celraam, stond blauwigzwart gewurgd van
benauwing, en z’n keelkrop sidderde boven z’n
koperen knoopen, als werd ie op en neer gerukt.
Wimpie wou maar weer naar bed, voelde zich doodop
van z’n loopje. Hij had Kees willen verrassen. Want
elken dag zag ie z’n vader treuriger erbij loopen, stiller,
en plots soms in dolle drift tegen z’n moeder uitrazen
als ze’m sarde en vloekte om z’n ketterijen, ze vóór
z’n gezicht uittelde, hoe ’t nest weer tegen den herfst
te hongeren zou krijgen. [397]

Van den boonenstorm had Wimpie gehoord; z’n vader

was er werkeloos door gemaakt. Want na ’t
overeindzetten ’n paar dagen, bij die en bij die, bleek
de pluk voor los werk te klein. En uit den stommen
angstigen kijk van z’n vader naar zijn gezicht, had
Wimpie heel diep gevoeld, dat ’t wel gauw met hèm
gedaan moest zijn. Hij moest doòd! Wat dat sterven