The influence of COVID-19 pandemia on migration and state policies of South-Eastern Asia

The article covers the peculiarities of Southeastern Asian countries measures taken to counter the spread of coronavirus in the region. The research is based mainly on the World Bank statistics concerning economic indexes of the countries in the region, the analysis of measures taken by the countries concerned as well as the documents taken within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) format. It is argued that most measures taken by the countries were identical, however, the success of their implementation was different. Thus, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam were relatively successful in countering the spread of coronavirus. The ways Malaysia and Cambodia countered coronavirus is criticized as well as measures taken by Indonesia did not seem to be very effective. However, each country had to prioritize its own citizens' health, thus, making such vulnerable groups as labour migrants and asylum seekers even more endangered. Countries of South-Eastern Asia depend a lot on international migration both inside the region and from the region to other countries of the world. Travel restrictions adopted worldwide complicated life of international labour migrants originating from South-Eastern Asia as well as their households relying on remittances. Thus, the faster host economies recover, the faster recovery in countries of origin is possible. Therefore, relatively optimistic forecasts on GDP changes in South-Eastern Asian countries within the following years provides the chance for the region to recover rather quickly, unless new restrictions are adopted due to virus mutations. Travel restrictions also made it more difficult for asylum seekers to reach safe territories. The receiving countries were blamed for governing their borders in the excessively strict way causing even the breaches of human rights. However, the pandemic situation provides a temporary excuse for the states they take advantage of. Current situation with vaccination against coronavirus is different in the countries of the region, thus, impeding complete restoration of regional migration flows. Countries of South-Eastern Asia used to have different initial economic and social conditions before the pandemia making them complementary and to a certain extent interdependent via international migration. Although the initial responses to pandemia were national ones, there is also the need to cooperate in ASEAN as well to guarantee the aims of the Association are still being achieved. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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