Indonesia’s Promotion of UN Migrant Protection Norms in ASEAN

Scholars have devoted insufficient attention to Indonesia’s foreign policy on migrant worker protection, especially as mobilized in multilateral institutions. This article addresses such knowledge gaps by analyzing why Indonesia has, for almost two decades, persistently promoted the United Nations Migrant Worker Convention in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) despite constant pushback from migrant-receiving countries. It argues that Indonesia’s persistence is driven by its locally constituted meaning of migrant worker rights. In particular, this article advances the critical norms approach in international relations to demonstrate that its interpretation is influenced by “Indonesia’s normative baggage,” or past experiences with labour migration that have too frequently dealt with the exploitation of Indonesian citizens abroad. This normative baggage in turn shapes the country’s diplomacy and promotion of convention standards deemed appropriate for safeguarding Indonesian migrants in ASEAN. In presenting the argument, this article contributes to the study of labour migration by scrutinizing Indonesia’s foreign policy on migrant protection and unpacking norm interpretation processes that are necessary in international negotiations.

印度尼西亚在东盟推进联合国流动人口保护规范

关键词：流动务工者权利；印度尼西亚；东盟；规范阐释；规范性历史包袱；正在应用中的意义。

对于印度尼西亚在保护流动务工者–特别是多边机构发起的保护措施—方面的外交政策，学术界尚未给予充分的关注。通过分析印度尼西亚为何在近二十年来不顾来自流动务工人员接收国家的持久反对，仍然坚持在东南亚国家联盟（东盟）推进联合国流动务工者公约，本论文填补了这一学术空白。本文提出印度尼西亚的立场是受到流动务工者权利的本土意义阐释所驱动的。具体而言，本论文利用国际关系中的批判性规范方法，展示出印尼的阐释是受到“印度尼西亚规范性的历史包袱”，亦即过往的劳动力迁移的经验中过于频繁遭遇印度尼西亚公民在海外受到剥削的情况的影响。反过来，这个规范性的历史包袱也塑造了这个国家在东盟中的外交政策，以及对其视为能恰当保护印度尼西亚流动人口的公约标准的推动。通过这个论题，本论文认真考察了印度尼西亚在流动人口保护上的外交政策，并解析了对于国际谈判来说必不可少的规范阐释过程， 对劳动力流动研究作出贡献。