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Women are being commonly sold, bought or exchanged in today’s democratic and liberal world. Why do some states regulate female trafficking better than others? What does female trafficking tell us about the state? Malaysia and India are established liberal ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state plays a crucial role in generating the statistics we use from developing countries. However, this involves uncritically accepting a certain amount of neutrality on the part of the state with respect to its ideologies, domestic prejudices, interests, capacity and claims of efficacy for the collection of its data. For making political science more relevant and grounded we should examine concretely what the collection and use of data entails. In this paper, therefore, I begin by entering the methodological debate surrounding the challenges of using statistics from developing countries.My arguments will be developed around the relationship between state and data. In particular, I am assuming that the state is the best, and sometimes the only, source of data on many political phenomena. I am interested in the problem with relying on state-supplied data in developing countries, which is separate from the empirical question of whether other sources of data exist. Clearly, making factual claims based on data and statistics supplied by developing states is one way of analyzing political and social realities. However, states in developing countries are not able to monitor and control many phenomena, which bypass them due to their limited resources. Accordingly, lack of reliable data on underground or “black” economies, landlessness, illegal money transactions, the feminization of labor flows, illegal migration flows, trafficking in women and children is a reflection of the state’s inability to monitor or control such activities. As scholars, are we to ignore all such practices that the state is unable to “see”â€"that is, about which the state is unable to obtain data? Legibility of people is important for the state. However, what is the validity of data in circumstances in which the state is unable to count, estimate, and monitor? Are we satisfied with what we see, or are we going to go deeper into the issue by being innovative? There is a need for more “political digging” if social science as a whole is to grapple successfully with the problems raised by illegal flows in poor and developing states. The call to do more global research and fieldwork is more relevant today. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The devastation wrought by the Tsunami brought worldwide focus on the capacity of states in South and Southeast Asia to deal with outcomes of disasters. One such outcome is an increase in human trafficking and illegal immigration from the disaster area. This paper analyzes the differing responses of governments in Indonesia and India to dangers of trafficking and argues that the variation in the character of political regimes, their ethnic cultural ideology, and state capacity explain the differing responses. While India and Indonesia provide cases of trafficking in democratic states, two other disaster zones, Bangladesh and Afghanistan will provide variation by way of their illiberal Islamic character. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the theories of immigration and citizenship, states will monitor, control, and restrict illegal immigration and other unwanted flows from another country, as has been the experience of most countries in the developed world. The success of most immigration policies is based on these examples. Yet, my research shows that many illegal immigrants and displaced populations gain access to citizenship and voting without going through institutionalized processes that safeguard citizenship: a phenomenon that contradicts everything the leading immigration and citizenship theories would have us expect. Using my research on Indonesian illegal immigration to Malaysia and Bangladeshi illegal immigration to India I show how illegal immigrants and other displaced populations gain access to citizenship in developing states. In both India and Malaysia, illegal immigration is a national security issue. Illegal immigrants and displaced populations are conferred citizenship, and therefore, play an electoral role due to the widespread use of documents, a variable of critical importance to the settlement of such populations. A focus on the role of documents in the post-September 9/11 world arose due to the challenges posed by terrorist networks to traditional immigration policies. By showing the enabling role that documents play in the global mobility of labor, legal or illegal, my comparative cases in India and Malaysia question traditional scholarship on immigration and citizenship. I conclude by highlighting the generalizability of my cases and what they tell us about illegal immigrant participation in the international system. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to the theories of immigration and citizenship, states will monitor, control, and restrict illegal immigration and other unwanted flows from another country, as has been the experience of most countries in the developed world. The success of most immigration policies is based on these examples. Yet, my research shows that many illegal immigrants and displaced populations gain access to citizenship and voting without going through institutionalized processes that safeguard citizenship: a phenomenon that contradicts everything the leading immigration and citizenship theories would have us expect. Using my research on Indonesian illegal immigration to Malaysia and Bangladeshi illegal immigration to India I show how illegal immigrants and other displaced populations gain access to citizenship in democratic states. In both India and Malaysia, illegal immigration is a national security issue. Illegal immigrants and displaced populations are conferred citizenship, and therefore, play an electoral role due to the widespread use of documents, a variable of critical importance to the settlement of such populations. A focus on the role of documents in the post-September 9/11 world arose due to the challenges posed by terrorist networks to traditional immigration policies. By showing the enabling role that documents play in the global mobility of labor, legal or illegal, my comparative cases in India and Malaysia question traditional scholarship on immigration and citizenship. I conclude by highlighting the generalizability of my cases and what they tell us about illegal immigrant participation in the international system. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]