Logo 3 NewVolume 3, No. 7 July 2024 (1618-1627)

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International Migration Control Strategy Through Soft Power

 

Farhan Kamil1*, Muhammad Syaroni Rofii2, David Ronald Tairas3

1,2,3SKSG Universitas Indonesia, Depok, West Java, Indonesia

Email: farhankamil0522@gmail.com1*, muhammadsyaroni@ui.ac.id2, david.ronald@ui.ac.id3

 

 

ABSTRACT:

It is human instinct to move from one place to another. This migration phenomenon will be followed by a movement of various aspects of life such as ideology, politics, economy, society, culture, security, demography, human resources, the environment, and various other aspects of life. Along with the times, international migration carried out by people is increasing; this is directly proportional to the advancement of technological civilization that produces innovations in the fields of information, transportation, and communication. This paper uses a qualitative approach. This research will produce descriptive data in the form of paragraphs explaining the events studied. The result of this study is that in order to influence the policy of granting visas to other countries, the country must take a persuasive approach, namely by having a high level of soft power so that it is in a bargaining position. Soft power and visa granting policies are both continuous and directly proportional. This can be proven by the top position of passport strength of a country also occupying the top position on the soft power index.

Keywords: International Migration, Soft Power, Visa.

 

 

INTRODUCTION

It is human instinct to move from one place to another (Maslow, 1971). This is because as living beings, humans are driven to meet their needs and this movement is part of an effort to meet their needs. De Haas (2014) explained that this human movement is known as mobility. Then this mobility will develop into migration when the perpetrator decides to settle in his destination and affects the demographics of the place. The scope of this migration starts from the shortest distance to the farthest distance. The range of migration distances is short, namely internal migration that crosses administrative boundaries, while the farthest migration is international migration that crosses political and state boundaries. The background for a person to do international migration is to go to a place (destination) or leave the area of origin and can be both with the same goal, namely to find the necessities of life. Destinations usually offer things that are not in the place of origin, such as jobs or supporting economic sectors. Meanwhile, for those who migrate in order to leave their area of origin, it is usually caused by conflicts or not having supporting sectors to meet their living needs, such as the economic sector or the social environment that is considered comfortable (Artal-Tur et al., 2014).

This migration phenomenon will be followed by a movement of various aspects of life such as ideology, politics, economy, social, culture, security, demography, human resources, the environment and various other aspects of life (Benson & O’Reilly, 2009). These various aspects of life seem to flow into an inseparable part of the flow of migrants to various parts of the world, these aspects will adapt to the new life environment, these aspects can be a driving factor for changes or shifts in life values or can even merge to form a new life from existing aspects of life, both in terms of understanding an ideology,  political conditions, economic conditions, social conditions, cultural conditions, security conditions, demographic composition, potential human resources, environmental conditions and other aspects (KIM, 2017). Each sovereign country has the authority to regulate its territory. The management of border areas is also one of the efforts to maintain state sovereignty. Along with the times, international migration carried out by people is increasing, this is directly proportional to the advancement of technological civilization that produces innovations in the fields of information, transportation and communication. The increase in migration phenomena that follow the progress of technological civilization certainly also increases the potential to threaten the sovereignty of a country. This potential provides awareness that threats to state sovereignty are increasingly shifting from physical forms (weapons) to non-physical forms.

The border paradigm is divided into two types, namely Hard Border and Soft Border (Linnell et al., 2016). Hard Border is a traditional paradigm based on state security, the state as the main actor, and aims to maintain the territorial sustainability of a country. This paradigm views borders as the backyard of a country or the outermost boundary of a country's territory. As a form of renewal of the traditional concept of hard borders, a new paradigm has emerged, namely soft borders that emphasize more on human resilience, the actors are not only the state, but also the fulfillment of basic human needs, and consider the border as the core of a country which is used as an external part but is more used to receive guests.  This soft border paradigm is more open and cooperative than the hard border paradigm (Ulfa et al., 2018). This shows that in addition to the potential for increasing threats, the shift of the hard border paradigm to the soft border paradigm on the border also encourages that to focus on the soft border because there is not only a need for a resilience aspect at the border, the soft border also requires attention to the phenomenon of international migration as one of the aspects in meeting needs.

Technological advances and the soft border paradigm have an important role in the phenomenon of globalization in the international world. Globalization is a continuous increase in economic, social and cultural interactions around the world by transcending national boundaries and has significant implications for political aspects (Viotti Paul, 2013). This phenomenon of globalization is also inseparable from the role of technology in it. Based on the definition of globalization, international migration causes the emergence of the phenomenon of globalization and globalization also encourages international migration to continue to occur, so that the two are mutually sustainable.

Every country does not view the phenomenon of globalization the same, some consider globalization as a threat to the state, some consider that globalization can be used to develop the potential of each country. As an effort to deal with globalization, every country has policies towards its national borders (Castles, 2019). This policy depends on the principles and political spirit embraced by his country. It is a challenge in ensuring the sustainability of a country in facing climate change at the country's borders. Starting from seeing the increasing level of migration as a threat, to seeing migration as an opportunity. The dynamic view of the phenomenon of international migration is influenced by how a country interacts with other countries, the interaction in question is that there are countries that carry out bilateral and multilateral relations, several countries gather and form a union, to countries that limit people from a certain country. These interactions then become the basis for a country's policy consideration towards international migration.

International migration has the same meaning as immigration in Article 1 number 1 of Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration (Chetail, 2014), namely "Immigration is a matter of traffic of people entering or leaving Indonesian territory and its supervision in order to maintain the upholding of state sovereignty." This definition of immigration shows that matters related to international migration are continuity in carrying out duties and functions in the field of immigration. The duties and functions in question include practices that have been running in carrying out checks of people entering and exiting the territory of a country at immigration checkpoints. These practices include the granting and examination of immigration documents and/or the imposition of sanctions against persons who commit violations related to immigration documents. Article 1 number 14 of Law Number 6 of 2011 concerning Immigration explains that what is included in immigration documents includes travel documents, one of which is a national passport as well as visas and residence permits. Based on this understanding, countries in dealing with the phenomenon of globalization need a strategic policy towards international migration. Strategic policies on international migration not only serve as a national defense mechanism, but also as a force to get what the country wants (Andersson, 2016; Hollifield & Wong, 2014).

For a person to be able to enter the territory of a country, at least that person has travel documents and a visa from the destination country. Generally, a person will apply for a visa to a representative of their country who is in the destination country and must provide personal information to be eligible for a visa. The destination country has restrictions on the granting of visas to a person, and those restrictions are part of their policy. The visa policy plays a key role in restricting and controlling international migration (Steffan Mau, et al., 2015). The visa policy is subjective, the policy is the full authority of the destination country in order to determine who is allowed to enter the territory of their country. Nevertheless, subjectivity in visa policy can be influenced by the strength of a country. Nye (2008) explains that power is the ability to influence others with the aim of getting the results we want. Based on this understanding, this paper explains that a country's strategy can influence a country's foreign policy through its visa policy.

 

RESEARCH METHODS

This paper uses a qualitative approach. This research will produce descriptive data in the form of paragraphs explaining the events studied. The literature study was carried out by searching and reading existing literature reviews in order to obtain data related to the findings in this study (Hignett & McDermott, 2015).

The data in this study consists of primary data and secondary data. Primary data is obtained through documentation studies of official state documents, such as laws and regulations and government policies related to the granting of a country's visa. Secondary data is data obtained from sources other than the research subject. Secondary data is obtained through literature studies, such as books, journal articles, and internet sites. The data collection technique used in this study is documentation. Documentation study is a data collection technique that collects documents relevant to the research (Nilamsari, 2014). The documents collected in this study are government laws and policies related to the granting of visas for a country.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Efforts to Influence a Country's Visa Policy

The Role of the Community as an Effort to Increase Soft Power

As mentioned above, power is the ability to influence others with the aim of getting the results we want. Thus, a country's power can be used to influence the visa granting policy by a particular country. Nye (2008) groups 3 (three) ways of influence, namely the use of violence (sticks), fishing and being paid (carrots), and attraction (attraction). In terms of influencing other countries, the right way to use is persuasive and not by coercion, let alone anarchy, that is, by fishing and displaying attractiveness. Based on these methods, soft power is the power intended to influence a country's visa policy.

According to Portland Communications, a global strategy consulting firm, measuring each country's soft power is determined based on 6 (six) elements, namely culture, contribution to the international world, government policies, education, digital, and attractiveness. Each of these six elements also has their own size so that they can conclude how much soft power a country has. Some efforts that can be made to increase the country's soft power are, of course, by increasing these elements. In addition to improving the UNUSR, the country also needs to interact with the international world through public diplomacy. Nye (2008) explained that what is meant by public diplomacy is the process of government communication to the foreign public, which aims to provide an understanding of the elements that exist in soft power. The existence of this communication is expected to be able to give the impression and value of the state to the international world, so that a national reputation is formed that is able to influence public attitudes and opinions so as to support the national interests of the country.

A positive national reputation can be achieved as the end result in carrying out the practice of public diplomacy, while the practice according to Candace White (2014) is the publication of information about her country via social media and the internet. Soft power also provides examples of practices in order to influence the world's perception of a country that practices it, such practices are student exchanges, international conferences, social activities, and art and cultural performances. Basically, efforts to gain a national reputation and influence the perception of the world through soft power assign the government to introduce, broadcast, and disseminate to the world the identity and circumstances of its country. Instead, the community plays the role of the main figure in an effort to gain national reputation and soft power because it is necessary to carry out its activities in a conducive manner so that the atmosphere of all aspects of life remains in a stable state (McClory, 2015; Nye, 2019; Ohnesorge, 2020).

Influencing a Country's Visa Policy with Soft Power

Every country has the right to its borders. They can choose who is allowed to enter their territory. For this reason, each country has policies in regulating the entry of people into its territory, one of which is the policy of granting visas. The visa policy is an instrument to control migration and population. This policy does not require parliamentary and judicial procedures, so it is considered that it does not require complicated legal changes. Based on this explanation, the visa policy is able to regulate the flow of people and this full authority cannot be intervened by other laws, so that the visa policy becomes a symbol of the power possessed by a country (Czaika et al., 2018).

The restrictions in visa policy are very diverse and have undergone many improvisations. Usually a person to get a visa needs to apply for a visa to the representative of the destination country in their place of origin, but as the times develop, some visas can be applied offline. There are visas that are granted with certain mechanisms and stages such as submitting documents, getting a recommendation, and interviews. However, there are several countries that exempt other countries from the obligation to have a visa to enter their country.

The main element in consideration in visa restrictiveness is on the basis of protecting the country and the advantages that can be had from allowing people from certain countries (Czaika et al., 2018). From these two considerations, the effort that can be made by a country to get a relaxation on visa restrictiveness from the destination country is to ensure that its citizens are not a threat that can be proven by their own country's conducive and stable environment. In addition to the environment of their own country, the country can also prove that they have potentials that can be used for the destination country such as the wealth of resources, the quality of education of its citizens and its economy so that it is in a bargaining position. Because it has a bargaining position, the country can establish interaction with countries that implement the visa granting policy. The interaction established can be in the form of bilateral, multilateral, or union cooperation relationships so as to produce reciprocal agreements related to the policy. The efforts made by this country are the same as improving the quality of its soft power so that by strengthening the elements of soft power, it can affect the policy of granting visas by other countries.

The Impact of Visa Granting Policies on a Country

As explained in the previous subchapter, visa policy is able to control international migration. The control of international migration is through granting permission to anyone who can enter the country. The implementation of the visa policy carried out by each country has an impact on them, the impact in question is that each country has access in different ways to other countries based on how the destination country provides policies. These different access is a benchmark of a country's ability to enter the territory of another country. Therefore, in addition to the visa policy acting as an international migration controller, the visa policy is a symbol of strength for every country.

The strength of each country can be seen in the way that its country's passport gets permission to enter other countries. One of the most famous benchmarks is The Passport Index website created and developed by Arton Capital, a global financial advisory firm. The site provides a ranking of passports in the world. This ranking is based on how the destination country provides visa policies to the country. Czaika, et al. (2018) call it the term visa restrictiveness for how a country enters with different visa policies. This visa restrictiveness is an indicator on The Passport Index. The indicators in question consist of visa-free entry (visa-free), visas on arrival (VoA), and visas with a mechanism in general so that they are accumulated and become moblity scores (ms). For example, based on the site, the author can describe the ranking of each ASEAN country as of 2023 through the following table.

Tabel 1. Passport Index ASEAN

No.

World Rankings

Country

Visa-free

VoA

Regular visa

1

5

Singapore

133

37

28

2

9

Malaysia

121

45

32

3

14

Brunei

107

46

45

4

49

Thailand

42

52

104

5

53

Indonesian

44

43

111

6

62

Philippines

36

41

121

7

69

Cambodia

22

47

129

8

70

Vietnam

23

45

130

9

76

Laos

22

40

136

10

82

Myanmar

15

40

143

 

Based on the table above, Singapore is the country with the number 1 passport strength in ASEAN with the fifth position in the world ranking. Singapore's fifth position gives its citizens access to enter 133 countries without the need for a visa (visa-free). The visa restrictiveness of each of the above countries depends on the assessment by the destination country. The basic considerations by a destination country are divided into two elements, namely that the future country is considered advantageous and does not threaten the security of the destination country. These two elements can be seen through aspects of life such as the economy, education, and health, potential vulnerabilities and conflicts within the country, cooperative relations between countries, as well as contributions and active roles at the international level. These aspects are also part of soft power, so soft power plays a role in influencing how a country has its visa restrictiveness.

Soft power as a variable in determining visa restrictiveness to countries can also be accumulated and can be ranked, the Global Soft Power Index site is one of the sites that processes the ranking of each country based on soft power. This site is owned by Brandirectory, a company in the field of brand, company, and country ranking directories. The author can describe the soft power ranking of ASEAN countries as of 2023 through the Brandirectory version table as follows.

 

Table 2. Soft Power ASEAN version of Brandirectory

No.

World Rankings

Country

1

21

Singapore

2

39

Malaysia

3

41

Thailand

4

45

Indonesian

5

61

Philippines

6

69

Vietnam

7

105

Cambodia

8

117

Laos

9

113

Myanmar

 

According to the site, the achievement of this soft power rating is based on a combination of various balanced and holistic assessments of all elements related to soft power. The elements referred to on this site are the presence, reputation, and impact of countries in the world as defined by soft power as previously explained.

Table 1 and Table 2 show similarities in the order of country ranking. There are only a few positions swapped between the two tables above, but this can be evidence that they are continuous and directly proportional to each other. The visa policy as an instrument of international political policy of a country plays a role as one of the elements in the assessment of  a country's soft power. Elements in soft power such as the national reputation of other countries, international cooperative relations, quality of life, and public diplomacy to show their attractiveness to the international world aim to reduce the level of visa restrictiveness from other countries towards their own country. Thus, having a low level of visa restrictiveness is able to increase its soft power. This also applies to the opposite, by seeking to improve the elements that exist in soft power, then other countries will consider the country to be given a light visa policy to exempt visas.

 

CONCLUSION

Based on the analysis, the research concludes that to influence visa granting policies, a country must employ a persuasive approach by enhancing its soft power. This strategy positions the country advantageously in international negotiations, demonstrating to the global community that it possesses quality attributes. The government has a role in showcasing the nation, while the community is responsible for maintaining a stable and conducive environment. This collective effort prevents the perception of a low-quality society, thereby enhancing the country's credibility in obtaining entry permissions.

Additionally, there is a directly proportional and continuous relationship between soft power and visa-granting policies. Countries with strong passports also rank high on the soft power index, indicating mutual influence. A country's passport power increases by strengthening soft power, and vice versa. This interplay allows nations to effectively manage international migration through the strategic enhancement of their soft power elements.

 

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Copyright holder:

Farhan Kamil, Muhammad Syaroni Rofii, David Ronald Tairas (2024)

 

First publication right:

Asian Journal of Engineering, Social and Health (AJESH)

 

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