Wayne Palmer

Wayne is lecturer in the Department of International Relations. He is an Indonesianist and a migration scholar.

Wayne received a Ph.D from the University of Sydney’s Department of Indonesian Studies for his thesis on the role of discretion in the design and implementation of Indonesia’s overseas labour migration programme. Since then he has managed a non-governmental service provision programme for migrant workers in Hong Kong and supported an intergovernmental organization to identify opportunities for improving the Indonesian government’s policy responses to labour migration and human trafficking.

Wayne uses social-legal approaches to examine legal and policy frameworks that regulate international labour migration. His field of research is the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on Southeast Asia. Wayne’s 2016 book offers for the first time a detailed, critical analysis of the way in which Indonesia’s Overseas Labour Migration Programme is managed and how that fits with other developments within the Indonesian government.