The governance of labor migration in Southeast Asia.
Global Governance › Vol. 16 Nbr. 3, July 2010
Linked as:
Extract
The governance of labor migration in Southeast Asia.
This article examines the international governance framework for labor migration and evaluates the roles of international organizations, and regional strategies, for cooperation on governance of labor migration in Southeast Asia. It focuses on the mandates and strategies used by the two key international institutions in the region, the International Labour Organization and the International Organization for Migration, which have diverse origins and ideologies. The article considers the questions: Which institution is best suited to be lead agency in the region? How can the overlap between them be coordinated? Further, as a matter of law and policy, and in light of overlapping mandates and interests, how should international dialogue around migration issues be structured in the region? KEYWORDS: governance, labor migration, international organizations, Southeast Asia.
********** INTRAREGIONAL LABOR MIGRATION IS ONE OF MORE "REMARKABLE DIMENsions" of the transformation of East Asia and Southeast Asia in the past three decades, mainly resulting from an imbalance in the growth of economies in the region. (1) It has been estimated mat, within countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, 1.5 million persons move each year to work abroad. (2) In Singapore and Malaysia, foreign labor has increased steadily during the past few years to approximately 30 percent of the total labor force. The increasingly important role of migrant workers within the region was recognized in the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and the Promotion of Rights of Migrant Workers. The majority of these migrants (39 percent, or 13.5 million) are working in other ASEAN member countries. (3) It has been suggested, furthermore, that intraregional migration is likely to increase, propelled by differentiated economic and demographic growth and closer economic integration within ASEAN. (4) In this context, it is often suggested that a regional mechanism is neede...See the full content of this document
