LABOR MIGRATION

OF SOUTHEAST
ASIA
Ninia Crishelle A. Manzano
 “
South-eastern Asia has, since
historic times, been defined by
large-scale population movements,
it is an important sub-region of
origin of labour migrants.
While Northern America, Europe and
Western Asia are important regions of
destination, the majority of the 23.6 million
migrants from South-eastern Asia remain on
the continent and roughly a third of them
stay in the same sub-region (ibid.).
• Contemporary labour migration in Southeast
Asia developed in the 1960s and expanded in
the 1970s and 1980s.

• The growing political and economic interconnectedness within

and between states in the region particularly after the formation
of the Association of Southeast Asian States (ASEAN) also
promoted individual personal mobility.
 TWO PRINCIPAL MIGRATION
CORRIDORS
The archipelagic Mekong sub-regional
ASEAN corridor corridor
 Malaysia, Singapore and  Thailand is the main
Brunei are the major destination for migrant
destination countries, workers from countries
importing workers largely through which the Mekong
from Indonesia and the River flows, specifically,
Philippines. Burma, Cambodia, Lao PDR
and Viet Nam.
THREE CHARACTERISTIC
FEATURES

GUEST LABOUR- PRIVATE

WORKER SENDING RECRUITMENT
PROGRAMS STATES AGENCIES
 The guest-worker programs incorporate
GUEST short, fixed-term employment contracts
with specific employers and repatriation
WORKER upon completion of service. Professionals
PROGRAMS and high skilled migrants are often provided
incentives.
  Involved in promoting and organising
LABOUR- labour emigration through government
to government agreements, such as
SENDING Memoranda of Understanding (MOU)
STATES  The MOU lay down minimum work and
labour standards
  The responsibility for recruitment,
transportation and placement lies
PRIVATE mainly with private recruitment
agencies, intermediaries (including
RECRUITMENT out-sourcing and brokerage firms) and
AGENCIES a thriving migration industry.
 The MOU lay down minimum work
and labour standards
5 MOST REASONS WHY MANY
WANT TO WORK ABROAD
Higher
Income
Investment
and
Benefits
High Peer
Saving unemployment Pressure
money rate in the and their
country Family
 CHALLENGES THAT MIGRANTS
FACES
Contract
Average monthly
substitution Wage gap
wages for
among migrant between men and
migrants in
workers signing a women migrant
comparison to
written workers
the legal
employment
minimum
contract

Labour rights Cost of sending

abuses and money through
access to formal and
justice for informal
migrant workers remittance service
providers.
 ILO TRIANGLE in ASEAN and IOM
PROMISE programmes

The Internatonal Labour Organizaton’s (ILO) TRIANGLE in

ASEAN programme (2015–25) delivers technical assistance and
support with the overall goal of maximising the contributon of
labour migraton to equitable, inclusive and stable growth and
development in the ASEAN region.

The programme is active in six countries – Cambodia, the

Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Thailand and Viet Nam
 THREE INTER-LINKING
OBJECTIVES

(3) establishing
(1) strengthening labour mobility
(2) enabling migrant
systems that are
protection workers to contribute to
gender-responsive
of the rights of and benefit from and increase the
migrant workers social and economic efficiency of
development labour markets
169,000,000
International migrant workers as of
2021
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 References

 https://academic
.oup.com/policyandsociety/article/29/4/385/6422223
 https://www.ilo.org/asia/publications/WCMS_613815/lang--
en/index.htm
 https://www.migrationdataportal.org/regional-data-
overview/south-eastern-asia#further-reading
https://blogs.adb.org/blog/migration-asia-where everybody-
going