ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration from 2007 to 2020

The number of people in ASEAN’s member countries who have traveled within the area to work in another ASEAN country is not as high as migration movements elsewhere globally, however, it

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

STATUTORY DECLARATION

I herewith declare that the thesis has been written on my own without any external unauthorized help, that it has been neither presented to any institution for evaluation nor previously published in its entirety

Any parts, words or ideas, of the thesis, including tables, graphs, and so forth, which are quoted from or based on other sources have been acknowledged as such without exception I am aware that the violation of this regulation will lead to failure of the thesis

I agree that a copy of this thesis may be made available in the Library of the Faculty of International Studies, VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi (VNU-USSH, Hanoi)

I agree that the abstract of this thesis may be placed on the website of the VNU-USSH, Hanoi

Date:

Signature:

Full name: Mai Mai

My heartfelt thanks also goes to all of the lecturers and staff of the Faculty of International Studies, VNU University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi (VNU-USSH, Hanoi) for their encouragement, insightful comments and positive atmosphere to do science

What is more, this thesis could not be done without the great support and understanding of my colleagues, those working at VNU-USSH, Hanoi, especially the members of the International Cooperation Office

Most importantly, none of this could have happened without my family and friends, whose value to me only grows with age, bless me with a life of joy in the hours when the lights were off

Date:

Signature:

Full name: Mai Mai

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS 2

INTRODUCTION 4

CHAPTER 1 CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND 14

1.1 Conceptual framework 14

1.1.1 Labor migration concept 14

1.1.2 Conceptual framework of cooperation on labor migration 19

1.2 Practical background 23

1.2.1 Overview of labor migration in ASEAN region 23

1.2.2 ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration before 2007 and Incentives for cooperation from 2007 to 2020 26

CHAPTER SUMMARY 36

CHAPTER 2 REALITY OF ASEAN’S COOPERATION ON LABOR MIGRATION 38

2.1 Actual situation of the cooperation from 2007 to 2020 38

2.1.1 Policy-wise 38

2.1.2 Practical actions 45

2.2 Case Studies 51

2.2.1 Singapore 52

2.2.2 The Philippines 55

2.2.3 Vietnam 58

CHAPTER SUMMARY 62

CHAPTER 3 ASSESSMENT AND FUTURE OF ASEAN’S COOPERATION ON LABOR MIGRATION 64

3.1 Achievements and Limitations 64

3.2 Challenges and Opportunities 70

3.3 Prospects and Recommendations 74

CHAPTER SUMMARY 77

CONCLUSION 79

REFERENCES 82

ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS

Professionals

Especially Women and Children

ACMW

ASEAN Committee on the Implementation of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights

of Migrant Workers

3

to some other ASEAN countries like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia because eruption

of ethnic and sectarian violence has created a lot of problems to these countries in answering whether or not they can stay and work legally there For ASEAN, there is

a growing debate on how the “ASEAN way” has become a drawback to the association’s capability to respond to human rights issues like this Some relevant topics on promoting workers’ rights or preventing human trafficking… were discussed, but they cannot be solved overnight

The number of people in ASEAN’s member countries who have traveled within the area to work in another ASEAN country is not as high as migration movements elsewhere globally, however, it has skyrocketed in the past twenty years

to seven million, including those who are undocumented At the 2003 ASEAN

Summit in Bali, ASEAN leaders agreed to establish an ASEAN Community, resting

on three pillars: ASEAN Political-Security Community, ASEAN Economic Community and ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community It has brought on the need of realizing the contributions of migrant workers to the society and economy of both hosting and sending countries of ASEAN, also, the sovereignty of states in determining their own migration policy relating to migrant workers, including determining entry into their territory and under which conditions migrant workers

may remain Thus, the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the

Rights of Migrant Workers was introduced in 2007, marking a groundbreaking

milestone of the ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration, since before that time, there was not too much emphasis on the labor migration issues in ASEAN Throughout the years, ASEAN has considered labor movement mainly as an expansion of free trade and investment – more particularly via the development of services exchange The Bali Concord II in 2003 require completion of Mutual

Recognition Agreements (MRAs) for abilities in major specialized services by 2008

to make room for free flow of professionals and skilled labor within ASEAN It was decided to take up a sectoral approach in promoting communal recognition arrangements for the identified professional services in ASEAN On the basis of the mentioned agreement, MRAs and Framework Agreements have been signed, but before 2007, there were only two signed MRAs, namely MRA on Engineering Services (2005) and MRA on Nursing Services (2006) Six other MRAs and Frameworks were signed in the period from 2007 to 2014, and they focus on architectural services, surveying qualifications, accountancy services, medical practitioners, dental practitioners and tourism professionals The Declaration, therefore, shows a reflection of the mutual concern with social protection, a great attention of ASEAN as a whole in forming a closer connection and cooperation among ASEAN countries on labor migration, as well as demonstrates a stronger role

of this ten-member association in the region After more than ten years, some actions have been taken, progress has been shown, yet, a lot of limitations have been displayed and there are many challenges that the member states have to face, especially when the mid-term review of the implementation of the Master Plan on building ASEAN Community by 2025 is getting closer and the flow of people from one country to another endures as a concerning issue The questions of whether or not this cooperation has brought success to the member states, peace and better lives for the citizens remained unanswered

Regarding Vietnam, the ASEAN Chair for 2020, a big challenge for this country remains human resources quality According to a World Bank ranking of quality of human resources, Vietnam is 11th out of 12 Asian countries with 3.79 points out of 10 An investigation by the Ministry of Planning & Investment shows that in Vietnam, up to 55.63 percent of small and medium-sized business owners have intermediate or lower education level, of which 43.3 percent of business owners only finish primary and secondary school [International Organization for Migration, 2017] While human resource is considered as a key element of the sustainable development of any business, up to 75 percent of the labor force in small and

medium-sized enterprises hasn’t joined technical and professional training Within the context of the mentioned MRAs and Frameworks, senior migrant workers will be committed to recognizing certificates among member countries, especially in eight areas In addition, high quality manpower (experts, skilled workers) must be professionally trained or have university or higher degree It requires workers to have professional skills, knowledge and fluency in a foreign language, especially English For professional qualifications, workers need to have a vocational certificate, or a degree that is recognized within these countries Therefore, workers with higher qualifications in domestic businesses of each ASEAN country will have the opportunity to move to other member countries to work and vice versa Their salary will be higher as well as their skills and attitude will be improved In other words, along with the increasing consumer demand in the region, level of human resources among ASEAN countries will be an important reason of labor movement between member countries Moreover, the situation of shady activities for Vietnamese labors

in particular and for ASEAN workers in general to get overseas jobs undertaken by illegal brokers, especially in rural areas, is ubiquitous Taking the chairmanship of ASEAN in the year 2020, the query of Vietnam could take advantage of this opportunity to learn from its counterparts to show its role in guiding its nine other neighbors in dealing with the existing labor migration problems of not only Vietnam but also ASEAN receives increasing attention

Hence, the writer hopes that through this thesis, not only the above questions can be clarified, but also some case studies and recommendations can be brought out,

in order for the writer to shed some light on the topic as well as to contribute to the academia

2 Literature Review

The topic of labor migration in ASEAN is not a new one since there have been some outstanding research done on this

In terms of understanding ASEAN’s policies, Social Security and Labor

Migration in ASEAN [Gloria O Pasadilla, 2011] is a good book for readers to know

more about portability of social security in ASEAN, particularly old-age,

retirement, and survivor benefits Besides, Assessing the Progress of ASEAN MRAs

on Professional Services [Yoshifumi Fukunaga, 2015] is one of the most standout

research, in which the author assessed the progress of the mutual recognition arrangements (MRAs) on eight professional services, with the focus on the regional and national implementation as well as actual movements of these professionals in the area Shintaro Hamanaka and Sufian Jusoh also hold their attention of the

MRAs with Understanding the ASEAN Way of Regional Qualification Governance:

The Case of Service Mutual Recognition Agreements Some other research are on

the Southeast Asian region or include the Asia Pacific area

Other than that, almost all of the writings are for analyzing policies in some

specific countries rather than ASEAN as a whole To illustrate, we have Labour

Migration in Southeast Asia: Migration Policies, Labour Exploitation and Regulation [Amarjit Kaur, 2010] which focuses on the case of Singapore, Malaysia

and Thailand, Migration Outflow and Remittance Patterns in Indonesia: National

as well as Subnational Perspectives [Palmira Permata Bachtiar, 2011], Foreign Labor in Singapore: Rationale, Policies, Impacts, and Issues [Siow Yue Chia,

2011], Managing International Labor Migration in ASEAN: Themes from a

Six-Country Study [Orbeta, A C, Gonzales, K, 2013], and some other works of different

authors in the region

Further to this, several Vietnamese authors also show their interest in understanding policies in a particular ASEAN country, especially Vietnam

Dang Nguyen Anh presented his work on Labour Export from Viet Nam: Issues of

Policy and Practice in 2008, which concentrates on the policies brought out by the

Vietnam’s government and their practice in real life Nine years after that, Hoang Thi Doan Trang submitted Recommendations for developing Vietnam’s labor

same year, Nguyen Lien Huong, together with Nguyen The Quan, Thieu Thi Thanh

Thuy, Nguyen Thị Thanh Nhan released their work on Mobility of ASEAN

engineers: opportunities and challenges for the education of engineers in

construction economics and management in Vietnam In 2017, Pham Hoang Van

Trang introduced her study on The theory of marginal product of labor and the

issue of moving Vietnamese labors to ASEAN countries After that, in 2018, Doan

Thi Phuong Diep and Duong Kim The Nguyen published their research on

Vietnamese Law on migrant workers in the legal context of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which focuses on the reception and management of foreign

workers in the context of the current regional economy A year later, in 2019, there

is another research done by Ha Thi Minh Duc on Movement of skilled Vietnamese

labor in the ASEAN community Nguyen Quy Hanh also contributes to the academia

by publishing Migration and development: Vietnamese migrant workers in

Thailand Besides, there is a certain number of work on understanding the situation

of migration in general and labor migration in particular, namely Labor migration

within ASEAN in the recent time and the problem posed for Vietnam [Luu Van

Hung, 2008], Commitment in the field of services and labor movement towards the

ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and some issues for Vietnam [Tran Thi Ngoc

Quyen, 2015], Managing migration crisis from the perspective of international

cooperation and experience for Vietnam [Dau Tuan Nam, 2019]

In addition, different organizations have done a series of research on both regional and national levels The leading one is the International Labour

Organization with Valuing the contributions of women migrant workers in ASEAN (2015), Review of labour migration policy in Malaysia (2016), and Worker, helper,

auntie, maid?: Working conditions and attitudes experienced by migrant domestic workers in Thailand and Malaysia (2016), Risks and rewards: Outcomes of labour migration in South-East Asia (2017), Access to justice for migrant workers in South-East Asia (2017), Protected or put in harm’s way? (2017), Progress of the implementation of recommendations adopted at the 3rd – 8th ASEAN Forums on Migrant Labour: Background paper to the 9th AFML (2017), Social protection for migrant workers in ASEAN: Developments, challenges, and prospects (2018), …

UN Women is another noteworthy international organization caring about this issue

Its outstanding work is Managing Labour Migration in ASEAN: Concerns for

Women Migrant Workers (2013)

As can be seen, though there has been a series of scientific work on labor migration, not so many of them giving an overall picture of ASEAN’s cooperation and its efforts in enhancing the situation in the region Moreover, the subject is still new for Vietnamese academia, when almost all of the work are translated from the reports/ articles of foreign authors, or focusing on Vietnam’s case particularly The need to understand this issue is there, just like the increasing number of people moving from one country to another in ASEAN Thus, the author holds a strong belief that this research can provide an overall look of the labor migration situation

in ASEAN, as well as the attempt of this dynamic organization in making the situation better What is more, it is expected to be a necessary addition to the Vietnam’s academia on this subject

3 Research Questions

The biggest question of the research is “How has ASEAN cooperated on labor migration from 2007 to 2020?” To answer it, here are some specific queries:

- What is the conceptual framework of “labor migration” as well as

“cooperation on labor migration” and its practical background in ASEAN before

having the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of

Migrant Workers in 2007? Why does ASEAN need to cooperate on labor migration

in the period from 2007 to 2020?

- How has the cooperation been, in terms of policies and practical actions? What is the specific situation in some ASEAN countries (Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam)?

- What are the results of this cooperation? Are there any challenges and opportunities for the ASEAN relating this cooperation? Shall there be any prospects and recommendations to improve the situation of ASEAN’s cooperation

on labor migration?

4 Research Objectives

- General objective: To identify the actual situation of ASEAN’s

cooperation on labor migration in the period from 2007 to 2020

- Specific objectives: Following the referred general objectives, the specific

ones are listed below:

+ To understand the conceptual framework and practical background of this

cooperation, especially before the birth of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection

and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in 2007; thereby, to realize the

stimuli of continuing this cooperation in the years between 2007 and 2020;

+ To learn the current state of affairs of the cooperation from 2007 to 2020 in two senses: policies and practical actions; after that, to dig into the factual situation of labor migration of some ASEAN member states and to see whether they actively participate in this cooperation;

+ To evaluate the cooperation in the above-mentioned period, to perceive the accomplishment and existing limitation of the cooperation, subsequently, to predict the challenges as well as opportunities of the cooperation in the years to come; therefore, to show some suggestions to make the cooperation better and to forecast

some feasible scenarios for ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration

5 Object and Scope of the study

- Object of the study: ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration

- Scope of the study:

+ Time frame: 2007 – 2020 (from the birth of the ASEAN Declaration on the

Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers to the mid-term review

of the implementation of the Master Plan on building ASEAN Community by 2025)

+ Geographic scope: ASEAN countries In addition, section 2.2 takes three

ASEAN member states, namely Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam as case studies Singapore and the Philippines are chosen to represent countries of receiving and countries of sending in ASEAN, respectively 2020 marks Vietnam’s chairmanship of the ASEAN and it is the ending point of the thesis’s time frame as

well so Vietnam is another case study for this thesis The thesis will introduce the overall picture of each country, including situations, relevant policies and programs, and the participation of each country in the ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration

6 Research Methodology

- Policy analysis: In this thesis, policy analysis is used for understanding

how and why ASEAN enact certain policies, and their effects More importantly, it helps the author recognize the characteristics of the cooperation on labor migration, shown in different policies Thus, the assessment of the ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration becomes more plain sailing, and the writer can suggest how these policies must evolve in order to meet the changing needs of a changing society

- Case studies: A case study is a detailed study of a specific subject In this

thesis, it is used to have a greater level of awareness of the situation in three countries: Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam In more details, the thesis introduces the overall picture of each country, including situations, relevant policies and programs, and the participation of each country in the ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration

- Statistical analysis: After collecting data from different reliable sources,

for example, the International Labour Migration Statistics Database in ASEAN by

the International Labour Organization, the thesis summarizes the data and finds patterns of the situation of labor migration in ASEAN in general and in particular ASEAN countries as well Thanks to this method, the thesis can figure out various matters such as countries of sending, countries of hosting in ASEAN, working age population by sex and education, favorable occupation chosen by the migrant workers, along with others

- Qualitative analysis: Content analysis and grounded theory are the most

used qualitative methods in this thesis Content analysis is used to analyze documented information in the form of texts, media, etc In this case, the information can be official policies, declarations, announcements, etc by the

ASEAN or other related organizations, governments It can also be collected from the sharing of the migrant workers in the newspapers or the studies of other researchers Grounded theory refers to using qualitative data to explain why a certain phenomenon happened It does this by studying a variety of similar cases in different settings and using the data to derive causal explanations As a result, the writer can get the hang of the characteristics of ASEAN’s labor migration, hence, explain why such typical features exist

- Descriptive-historical approach: A description of events from the past was

adopted in the thesis, notably the milestones of introducing policies relating labor migration by the ASEAN, a series of The ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour, et al These happenings are listed in this writing in order for the writer to compare between what the ASEAN’s member states did agree to accomplish and what really occurred in the physical world

7 Structure of the thesis

The thesis consists of three main parts: introduction, body and conclusion The body part includes:

CHAPTER 1 CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

This section is designed to give readers the conceptual framework used in the thesis, including the concept of labor migration and cooperation on labor migration by listing out the definitions that were used by concerning organizations as well as other researchers Consequently, the author chooses the one that suits the objective

of the thesis the most and one that can help answer the research questions What is more, this chapter also provides an overall image of the labor migration situation in ASEAN as well as the way its countries cooperate in this field before 2007 and the

motivations for continuing their partnership in the period from 2007 to 2020

CHAPTER 2 REALITY OF ASEAN’S COOPERATION ON LABOR MIGRATION Moving on to the second chapter, the writer presents the real situation of ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration from 2007 to 2020, in both directions: policy and practical actions This chapter is meant to help the readers learn more about the

initiatives introduced by the ASEAN and the way they are applied in real life, to see whether or not ASEAN would walk its talk Especially, section 2.2 takes three ASEAN member states, namely Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam as case studies Singapore and the Philippines are chosen to represent countries of hosting and countries of sending in ASEAN, each to each cha The author will introduce the overall picture of each country, including situations, relevant policies and programs, and the participation of each country in the ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration

CHAPTER 3 ASSESSMENT AND FUTURE OF ASEAN’S COOPERATION ON LABOR MIGRATION

After understanding the situation of ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration, the thesis evaluates this cooperation by summarizing the achievements and limitations

that ASEAN has encountered, principally from the birth of the ASEAN Declaration

on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers By the same

token, the author also points out the challenges that this 53-year-old association has

to face in the time to come, as well as analyzes its favorable circumstances To such

a degree, three possible scenarios for the future of ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration are projected The end of the last chapter is the recommendations that the author wants to suggest so as to make this cooperation better

CHAPTER 1 CONCEPTUAL AND PRACTICAL BACKGROUND

Before being aware of the situation of ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration, it

is indispensable to understand the conceptual framework used in the thesis In view

of this, chapter one is fashioned to give the readers the concept of labor, labor migration, labor migrant as well as different types of labor migration Additionally, the role of labor migration is also pointed out in the first part of this chapter, specifically its role in international relations Likewise labor migration concept, the notion of cooperation on labor migration is also highlighted in the present section

To start with, the thesis shares the concept of international cooperation employed in this writing, following are the ideas, policies and agreements proposed by different international and regional organizations These are shown for the purpose of realizing the long-lasting practices of international cooperation on labor migration around the globe After that, ASEAN, the main object of the thesis, is studied, to discover the practical background of ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration in the 13-year period from 2007 to 2020 To be more precise, an overall impression of the labor migration situation in ASEAN as well as the way its countries cooperate in

this field before the delivery of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and

Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in 2007 is described Not only that, the

stimuli for continuing this partnership in the years between 2007 and 2020 are also emphasized

1.1 Conceptual framework

1.1.1 Labor migration concept

Migration is one of the essential factors making this world the way it is today For centuries, human have always been migrating, both in groups and as individuals, to find peace from wars, to make getaway from poverty or hunger or to seek for better employment opportunities It can be dated back to the pre-modern time, when human migrated to different regions for peopling the world On the

current days, human migration has at first taken the form of moving within and between existing dominant states, either controlled (legal migration) or undisciplined and in violation of immigration regulations (illegal migration)

In order to profoundly comprehend the idea of labor migration, the thesis opts

to beginning from the definition of “migration” Both the Thesaurus Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary point out that migration is “the act, process, or an instance of migrating” [Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1996] In order to clarify the meaning of “migrating” and to understand the nature, signals, period of time and purpose of the act of migration, the author wants to introduce the definitions of two other sources While the Demographic Dictionary of United Nations defines migration as “such an event in which people move from one geographical area to another geographical area, when people leaving their place of residence to live permanently in another area then this is called migration”, the Cambridge Dictionary shows that migration is “the process of a person or people travelling to a new place or country,in order to find work and live there temporarily or permanently” [Cambridge University Press, 2001] It is clearly seen that both of these two definitions acknowledge migration as the process or an event in which people move from one area to another, yet, the Cambridge Dictionary analyzes the purpose of moving or travelling is for not only living but also working It also leads to the difference in the period of living that these two definitions bring to the audience: permanence or temporariness For this factor, since there are a lot of return migrants

in the world every year, whether they are forced or voluntary, it is believed that migrants can stay in the host countries permanently or temporarily In the global context, it is reported that “millions of migrants return to their country of origin every year, not all returns are necessarily recorded The top five countries that experienced the largest outflows in 2016 were Germany (1,085,400), Korea (325,000), Spain (241,800), Japan (233,500) and the United Kingdom (195,000), according to figures produced by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) on outflows of foreign populations from selected OECD

countries [OECD, 2019] It’s noted that each country has a different methodology for measuring outflows [Migration Data Portal, 2019] Thus, migration may be permanent or temporary, depends on the intention of returning to the place of origin

of the migrants

Labor migration is a type of migration, especially international migration

According to "Migration and Land Use Change in Europe: A Review" by Simon Bell, Susana Alves, Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira and Affonso Zuin, labor migration is recognized as “the movement of individuals from one country to another with the purpose of seeking work or responding to recruitment drives in another country.” [Bell, S., Alves, S., Silveirinha, O E., Zuin, A., 2010] The IOM Glossary on Migration (2nd ed 2011) and EMN Glossary agree that labor migration is the “movement of persons from one state to another, or within their own country of residence, for the purpose of employment” [Perruchoud, R., Redpath-Cross, J., 2011] This essay is basically of the same mind with these definitions, still, it wants to focus on the movement of persons from one country to another, as well as to make further information on the age of staying in the countries they settle, which is often temporary

Moving to the definition of labor migrants, the thesis is about to show some

descriptions provided by various related international organizations, synthesized by Judit Simon, Noemi Kiss, Agata Łaszewska, and Susanne Mayer in the “Public health aspects of migrant health: a review of the evidence on health status for labour migrants in the European Region” According to this publication, The United Nations Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families defines a migrant worker as a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a state of which he or she is not a citizen; meanwhile a “migrant worker” is defined in the International Labour Organization (ILO) instruments as a person who migrates from one country to another (or who has migrated from one country to another) with a view to being employed other than on his own account, and includes any person

regularly admitted as a migrant for employment; and The International Organization for Migration characterizes “labor migrants” as those who move for the purpose of employment [Simon, J., Kiss, N., Łaszewska, A., Mayer, S., 2015] All of the cited definitions above, though being put in different languages, agree on the point that labor migrants are individuals who move from one state to another for the purpose

of employment

Labor migration can be divided into different types If Simon Bell, Susana

Alves, Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira and Affonso Zuin divided it into two types (highly skilled labor migration and unskilled low wage and temporary migration), Baštýř and col added two more and made it four types of labor migration According to Baštýř and col, labor migration can be either one of these following:

The first one is incentive migration, which is a response to the invitation of the

destination country This country usually requires experts from the specialized professions (like doctors) and, because of its economic strength and maturity, can afford to pay them Another impulse for migrants, rather than wages is career opportunities, along with better living standards It can also be considered as highly skilled labor migration by Simon Bell, Susana Alves, Eva Silveirinha de Oliveira and Affonso Zuin

The second one is demand migration, which means the impetus comes from the

migrant workers, either it is positively or negatively motivated In this case, risk to the target country is massive influx of unskilled (but cheap) labor force, which logically changes conditions on the labor market (employment or wages)[Mendel University in Brno, 2010] This is much alike the unskilled low wage and temporary migration mentioned above

The other two types are developed from the previous ones, the migrants’ motives can be one of these above: from the destination country or from themselves However, the period of living and the way of working are the ones that matter

The third type is residential migration This is a continuing stay of a migrant in the

target country that often leads to permanent relocation The main principle here is

usually the amount of income that can visible move the strong social and cultural bonds with the migrant's home country (family for example) Differences in real wages between home country and target country is very distinctive, in his piece of writing, Baštýř refers expressly to at least double of the domestic real wage

The fourth kind is commuting (oscillating) migration: different from the mentioned

types of labor migration, a drifter’s living and residence destination settles in homeland Migrant travels to work by means of commuting daily or staying overseas briefly (often for a week, less commonly a month then return home approximately for a weekend) The above features make it apparent that within commuting migration the countries of destination are mainly adjacent states of home country [Baštýř, I., 2005]

Labor migration plays a significant role in the development of the world It

does not only affect the world’s economies, but also has an impact on cultures and societies Moreover, labor migration relates intimately to international relations Myron Weiner in the “On International Migration and International Relations” describes that the regulations of entry and exit of a nation are heavily impacted by not only the global migration but also by the international affairs; and the congruence and incongruence of laws between states will affect the motif of international warfare and partnership More specifically, if one state wishes to import workers from a country willing to export, they share goals that make it able

to discuss matters such as incomes, conditions of employment, rules of banishment, arrangements for remittances, etc As a consequence, bilateral agreements are achievable, and where many countries are involved in trade, multilateral arrangements are also possible It could be an agreement reached before or an unspoken understanding In contrast, where one state allows, boosts or enforces colonization to a state restraining access, the situation is at high risk of conflict, nations with strained relations may establish borders to the flow of population so as

to prevent further conflicts Myron Weiner also points out that international economic changes may cause governments to adjust their access policies, for

example, the oil cost increase brought about a lack of labor in oil-producing nations while making others to export workers in order to sustain their balance of income through remittances Moreover, some agricultural and industrial tactics may result

in the escalation in need for workforce, or in a tremendous surplus, applying pressure on an authority to mitigate its entry or exit regulations Besides, the access rules of a state consist of bureaucratic ability and its eagerness to impose legal measurements, they also comprise of the expectation a nation has of one another, their prominence for behaving in a typical manner [Weiner, M., 1985]

What is special about global migration, containing labor migration, is that it modifies the structure of one’s community and thus probably one’s domestic policies; it introduces the outside, as it were, and it involves transmitting a piece of one’s country into another civilization The outcome is not even an indifferent interplay including financial systems, trade movements, but the profound, affective interactions relating to mankind Once the problem of migration becomes a distress for bilateral or territorial negotiations, then a conversion in dominance will occur from ministries and administrations interested in labor and domestic affairs to those concerned with extrinsic relations and defense The bilateralization or internationalization of immigration can also connect to other bilateral or global matters like trade, investment, medicine, water resources and environment

1.1.2 Conceptual framework of cooperation on labor migration

In the era when labor migration has become more and more popular, the need for international cooperation is higher than ever Hoang Khac Nam, after analyzing and synthesizing the concepts of international cooperation from different dictionaries and authors, introduced his explanation for this, which is “cooperation

in peace among actors in international relations in order to achieve common goals” [Hoàng Khắc Nam, 2017] The thesis agrees with this explanation In more detail, it has four characteristics First, “common goals” should be understood in a way that are not only the ones that all actors involved are chasing, but also similar interests that can be beneficial for everyone Second, international cooperation requires

actors to coordinate with each other in all fields: human, material and financial resources Third, in terms of the outcome of the cooperation, involved actors can either be in a win-win situation or a catch-twenty-two Last but definitely not least, international cooperation has to have the participation of the international relations actors

Taking a closer look at this study which is cooperation among ASEAN countries, this can be classified as either multilateral cooperation (based on the number of actors participating in the cooperation) or regional cooperation (formed

on spatial scale) The reason why it can be considered multilateral cooperation is it has the presence of ten ASEAN member countries This kind of cooperation tends

to emerge due to the emergence of many common cooperation issues and the rise of interdependence among nations In addition, based on spatial scale, this is no doubt

a regional cooperation, since it is the cooperation among nations in the same geographic area – Southeast Asia - and from the same organization – Association of Southeast Asian Nations In the history of international relations, regional cooperation took place before the global one because region is the immediate environment for nations, also, the limited capacities and visions of countries did not allow them to cooperate globally In the modern time, this type of cooperation is on the rise

International cooperation on labor migration attracts the attention of various organizations As migration is a world’s phenomenon, happening not only

between pairs of nations or among areas but also from almost every intersection of the world to others, it asks for our collective concentration As early as 1919, the ILO illustrated the desire for shielding migrant workers by containing the Preamble

to the Constitution as one of the goals of this organization The former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated: “Only through cooperation – bilateral, regional and global – can we build the partnerships between receiver and sender countries that are in the interests of both; explore innovations to make migration a driver of development; fight smugglers and traffickers effectively; and agree on

motility as a substitute to irregular migration In the report of The 61st Session of

the General Assembly High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, ILO affirmed that there is rising convergence of schemes on the

requirement of a multilateral regime to govern international labor migration, and

“the report of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, the activities of the Geneva Migration Group, the International Agenda for Migration Management of the Berne Initiative, the IOM International Dialogue on Migration, the report of the Global Commission on International Migration, the ILO Resolution on Migrant Workers (92nd Session of the ILO International Labour Conference 2004) and the Report of the UN Secretary-General on international migration and development have all underlined the need for such a regime to maximize the potential benefits of labor migration and minimize its drawbacks.” [International Labour Office, 2007] This organization also

introduced The non-binding ILO Multilateral Framework on labour Migration,

which provides a tool kit for guiding labor migration policy

On the global scale, there is an elevation of a normative foundation for domestic policy and global collaboration in the field of international labor

migration For instance, the framers of ILO Conventions Nos 97 and 143 envisaged

such cooperation and nourished for the alternate trade of information on national policies, laws and rules, migration for employment; the circumstances of work and

occupation of migrant workers and deceptive propaganda Convention No 143

furthermore sustains for cooperation between states, with the particularly objectives

of restricting clandestine flow of migrants for employment; protesting against the

planners of the illicit movement of migrant labor and their recruiters who have infiltrated without authorization; and making sure the perpetrators and leaders of labor trafficking can get prosecution, no matter the country where they perform

such activities The International Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers

and Members of Their Families deliberately acknowledges that a human rights

guardianship framework cannot be efficiently put into practice if there’s not enough consultation and assistance between nations Furthermore, the state-of-the-art

procedure can be spotted in the ILO General Discussion on Migrant Workers at the

92nd Session of the ILC, the Global Commission on International Development, the

UN High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, and the Global Forum for Migration and Development, the third conference of which was

held in Athens in November 2009 In December 2003, the Global Commission on

International Migration (GCIM) was established by the UN Secretary-General and

a number of authorities It consists of nineteen independent commissioners with sanction of providing a foundation for the formulation of a comprehensible,

extensive and global reply to the matter of international migration The 2006 UN

High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development is also an attempt

made by plenty of countries around the globe The international collaboration can

be said to be what nations in the world are striving for

At the regional scale, even though global migration movements are getting more and more intercontinental, the biggest possibly are those between nations in the same domain The EU builds the most expansive area with unrestricted movement of labor, but compromises have also been achieved in other regions There are agreements among members of the Nordic Community for both skilled

and low-skilled labor; between Australia and New Zealand under the Australia–

New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA); and

between Canada, Mexico and the United States for skilled labor under NAFTA In

Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN

Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers in

In conclusion, international cooperation has always been an essential part of international relations International cooperation in labor migration has emerged decades ago, shown from bilateral to global forms Regional cooperation in this field is even more necessary And ASEAN, as an association among ten Southeast Asian countries witnessing a rising trend of workers moving from one nation to another, has been gradually drawing its attention to this field

1.2 Practical background

1.2.1 Overview of labor migration in ASEAN

As reported by an ILO’s research, in 2017, migrant workers occupied about

59 percent of the world’s global migrant community [Popova, N., O zel, M.H., 2018] Even if the number of people in member countries of ASEAN who have traveled within the area to work in another ASEAN country is not as high as migration movements elsewhere globally, it has skyrocketed in the past 20 years

to 7 million, including those who are undocumented [Shetty, S., Testaverde, M., 2018]

The ASEAN was set up in Thailand on 8 August 1967 with the signing of the ASEAN Declaration By 1999, the Association had the current size of ten Member States, including Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam Among the members,

Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand are considered countries of destination, meanwhile Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Vietnam are viewed as countries of origin of migration

During 2000 and 2006, 27.8 million new jobs were formed in ASEAN countries, a growth rate of 11.8 percent and a rise from 235.2 to 263 million employees A large portion of these new occupations were mostly migrant workers from other ASEAN nations It was estimated in 2005 that 13.5 million migrant workers originating from the ASEAN area, with about 40 percent or 5.3 million working in other member countries In 2013, there were as high as 10,206,000 global evacuees working and settling in ASEAN at the moment 6,788,000, which is about two-thirds of the total global migrants living and working in ASEAN, have come from within the area ASEAN citizens living overseas have been estimated at 21.3 million [Imson, M., 2015]

The four dominant regional destination hubs for migration within ASEAN are Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand Relating countries of origin, the Philippines has the most outgoing migrant workers across Asia Indonesia is second only to the Philippines Vietnam has more than 500,000 registered migrants in forty nations and regions, as stated by a report published by

UN Women and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs (MoLISA) in

2012 [Bowen, R., Do, H., 2012] Among the 150,000 Vietnamese migrant workers hired in ASEAN, some 100,000 were in Malaysia, with the rest mainly in Singapore and Brunei Darussalam, based on a 2007’s survey [Dang, A., 2008] There are a lot

of unregistered Vietnamese migrant workers in Cambodia as well The number of deployed migrant workers every year has constantly increased from over 70,590 in

2005 to more than 88,000 in 2011, when 36 percent were women In 2003, about 25 percent of Vietnamese migrant employees in Malaysia were women, where they carry on to be mainly recruited as factory workers The number of registered women migrant employees rose over three times from 9000 in 2000 to 28,000 in

2009 [UN Women, 2013]

Migration movements in ASEAN have a few noticeable features, listed below:

The first one is the steadily high levels of feminization: One of the most notable

characteristics of labor migration in the ASEAN region is its feminization Meanwhile women make up 49.1 percent of all migrants in the world, the informal numbers for ASEAN countries of origin imply that a huge portion of migrant employees, who are deployed via TFWPS, are women Most Asian women migrant workers are impoverished and young, who are between 20 and 39 years old at the period of migration [Oishi, N., 2005]

The second feature is structural reliance on momentary abroad worker programs,

which are the prominent labor migration scenario in ASEAN In countries of destination, this dependency is conspicuous in the considerable numbers of temporary migrant employees and their families, comprising of the underemployed and unemployed In countries of origin, it is apparent in migrant workers’ usage of migration as a personal and family survival tactic, in pursuit of content jobs and payments to maintain livelihoods

The third trait is high levels of unregistered migration: All ASEAN destination

nations, with the exception of Singapore, face high levels of undocumented immigration The biggest groups of unregistered migrant employees are detected

in Thailand and Malaysia, with as few as 2.1 million unofficial migrant workers

in these nations Levels of undocumented migration in South-East Asia are equivalent to unregistered migration movement in Europe and along the US-Mexican border In 2007, the stream of unofficial immigration from Indonesia to Malaysia was estimated to be second only that from Mexico to the US [Hugo, G., 2007]

The fourth one is noticeable cross-border movements Migrant employees, when

challenged with costly, complicated and unavailable legal migration schemes have a tendency to migrate through undocumented mediums, especially in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) and other cross–border areas in ASEAN Women suffer

from greater hardships than men in attaining safe, economical and legal migration means since they often have less money and control over resources and advantages They also experience lack of credible, trustworthy and gender-responsive data on registered labor migration, and face more constraint on freedom of flow, before migrating in some nations

The fifth element is excessive levels of unofficial employment: Most migrant

employees in the informal economy work in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in sectors involving construction, agriculture and fisheries Others are recruited in households, employer-managed businesses and services, notably domestic and caretaking, which are not included from labor and social protections

In ASEAN countries, a lot of unofficial migrant workers are women For example,

in Indonesia in 2006, almost four-fifths of all migrant workers were chosen in the informal economy abroad [Hernandez-Coss, R., Brown, G., Buchori, C., Endo, I., Todoroki, E., Naovalitha, T., Noor, W., Mar, C., 2008]

The last one is noteworthy levels of trafficking The highly gendered disposition of

migration movements could be related to the prevalence of sex and labour trafficking within the region Migrant women and girls are extremely in danger of trafficking In Malaysia, where over 250,000 migrant domestic workers in 2011 were registered, mainly from Indonesia, an additional 100,000 registered and unregistered migrant domestic employees may be trafficking victims according to the survey [UN Women, 2013]

1.2.2 ASEAN’s cooperation on labor migration before 2007 and Incentives for cooperation from 2007 to 2020

2007 witnessed an avant-garde move of the ASEAN, when it introduced the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, with the signatures of ten leaders from all ASEAN member countries Before this remarkable milestone, there was not too much emphasis on the labor migration issues in ASEAN

Throughout the years, ASEAN has considered labor movement mainly as an expansion of free trade and investment – more particularly via the development of services exchange Members complied that “there shall be a freer flow of capital, skilled labor and professionals among Member States” [ASEAN, 2012] This agenda has evolved considerably simultaneously with the WTO/ GATS mobility growth The movement of accomplished labor and professionals linked to exchange

in services is accompanied with the so-called “mode 4” movement of natural persons, one out of four modes of cross boarder services provision, as defined by the 1995 WTO/GATS deal, which resolves the momentary entry of skilled workers This collective includes intra-cooperate transferees, investors and accomplished employees

The 1995 ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) gives inter alia,

managing convergence and harmonization, comprising of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) ASEAN nations may acknowledge the education or experiences acquired, requirements satisfied and licensing or recognition granted by other ASEAN nations Nevertheless, development in Mode 4 on mobility of natural persons and growth on MRAs has been stagnant or even has not come into force MRAs are regarded as another essential step towards better movement and regional integration These were intended to assist trade in services by bilateral acknowledgement of authorization, licensing, or certification of qualified services providers, however bearing in mind “domestic regulations and market demand conditions” [ASEAN, 2013] Arguments on harmonization of professional aids have progressed in eight sectors, including engineering, accountancy, architecture, surveying, nursing, dental and medical practitioners, and tourism Still, application of these MRAs is still in progress, with levels of implementation changing significantly across the diverse jobs and relying mainly on the national regulatory capabilities

In 2003, ASEAN introduced its plan to build a regional Community based

upon three pillars: the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the ASEAN

Political-Security Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community The AEC targets

to reach regional economic integration by 2015 and establish ASEAN as an independent market, with a single production base that indicates the unrestrained of the elements of production, covering skilled labor and capital This means a single market with new industry and job chances for about 600 million people, a region that saw rising economic productivity since 2007, with a yearly average growth of 5.1 percent The Bali Concord IIF in 2003 requires completion of MRAs for abilities in major specialized services by 2008 to make room for free flow of professionals and skilled labor within ASEAN To be more specific, in July 2003, the ASEAN Coordinating Committee on Services (CCS) invented an AdHoc Expert Group on Mutual Recognition Arrangements under its Business Services Sectoral Working Group with the aim of actualizing framework agreements on mutual acknowledgement It was decided to take up a sectoral approach in promoting communal recognition arrangements for the identified professional services in ASEAN On the basis of the mentioned agreement, MRAs and Framework Agreements have been signed, before 2007, there were two signed MRAs, namely MRA on Engineering Services (2005) and MRA on Nursing Services (2006)

One of the most significant ASEAN’s working schemes on labor market

integration was that of the ASEAN Labor Minister (ALM) Since 2000, ASEAN’s

work on labor and human resources has been instructed by the ALM Work Program The program provides the foundation to prepare the region’s workforce to meet the obstacles of globalization and trade liberalization The five broad priorities first set in the Work Program are in the regions of business generation, labor market managing, labor movement, social safeguard, and tripartite assistance In May 2006, the ASEAN Labor Ministers agreed in their Joint Statement to include a sixth priority area, namely occupational safety and health (OSH), in the ALM Work Program Also in that year, ASEAN published its foundation agreement on visa exemption Equivalently, it permits visa-free movement for ASEAN nationals across the region for no more than 14 days It was made particularly to enhance intra-ASEAN mobility of citizens

In 2007, the 13th ASEAN Summit approved a profound roadmap, the alleged

ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint (AEC Blueprint), an organized blueprint

to counselor the establishment of the 2015 AEC The following table encapsulates the aspects linked to migration cooperation at the national level presented by the members to be tackled within the AEC Nonetheless, this assistance scheme does not implement immediate compulsory policies for the ASEAN nations

Source: Jurje, F., Lavenex, S (2015), “ASEAN Economic Community: what model

for labour mobility?”, NCCR Trade Working Paper, 2015/02, p 1-26

As described in the sections above, certain improvements for labor movement have been started as part of the economic pillar

There are some actions performed prior to the emergence of the ASEAN

Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers As

mentioned above, the number of people in ten member countries of ASEAN having travelled within the area to work in another ASEAN country has risen in the past twenty years to seven million, which leads to the incentives of cooperation among ASEAN’s member countries in the years forward

In terms of the incentives of the cooperation among ASEAN’s countries regarding labor migration in the period of 2007 to 2020, there are both objective

and subjective incentives to be considered

With respect to the objective ones, the first one is the need of building

ASEAN to be a strong and unified association, together with the growth of regionalism The later Cold War period witnessed an advanced season of institution building at the regional scale which once more catered some recent and necessary precedent for later action Despite the evident impact of the Cold War, the appearance of these newer associations was a depiction of the fluctuating security and economic preferences and the need for regional actors to control their local surroundings ASEAN was established as a mutual trend – an unavoidable regional trend of that period After Cold War ended, nations in Southeast Asian consistently acknowledged that differences in ideology and political administrations were no longer an impediment to the procedure of creating a regional association With over

50 years, ASEAN has become a dynamic economic progression area with a population of nearly 600 million, an area of 4.5 million km2, a GDP level of about

900 billion and a total trade value of approximately 800 billion USD An important factor of the ASEAN foundation is its adherence to the fundamental of non-interference and acknowledgement of member state sovereignty Like Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stated in the 33rd ASEAN Summit: "By coming together in one collective voice, instead of going our separate ways as 10 disparate countries, ASEAN members have strengthened our standing in the world." [Sim, R., 2018] Looking at the complex situation of migration in general and labor migration

in particular in other countries and regions, taking the European Union as an example, ASEAN is aware of the urgency of having a more solid and concrete plan for labor mobility within the region The rise of populism and nationalism in Europe

is also a threat to the stability and strength of this region as well as the European Union, and it is more or less a warning to other regional organizations, though each organization bears its own characteristics The more ASEAN be prepared and well-

equipped in every single aspect, the stronger it could be Hence, it is a motivation for ASEAN to take a good care of its citizens, including its migrant workers When ASEAN can prove itself a strong and worth-invested area, it can attract a lot more investment and attention from other organizations and powers in the world What is more, it is estimated that there were 6,788,100 international migrants from ASEAN going to the world [International Labour Organization, 2015b] If ASEAN can have

a consensus in building a labor migration management system and captivate all of the countries to join, not only can it help this association as a whole, but also raise awareness in each member state and assist each nation in practicing administering and supervising its own residents Thus, each country can have a higher qualified number of labors provided to the world, and the labors themselves can have a wider variety of career choices, rather than just being blue-collar workers

Second, the introduction of the ASEAN Community, especially the Economic one,

is also a springboard and at the same time, an encouragement for a better cooperation on labor migration in this 10-member association In 2007, ASEAN developed its Blueprint for the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) The Blueprint classified four "pillars" of the AEC to establish a single market and production base, an ambitious economic region, an area of impartial economic growth, and an internationally connected regional economy The AEC was officially founded in December 2015 between ten member nations with the primary aim is to allow for the unrestricted flow of goods, skilled labor, services and investment As mentioned before, it first focused on the free movement of goods and services, though there were discussions taken to find out the ways to fully achieve the goals, the cooperation plan seemed to be not interpreted into immediate mandatory policies for the ASEAN states In the 8-year period from 2007, 2015, the implementation of the AEC has witnessed progression Various trade and economic deals have been proposed or affirmed, but the association has met some postponements in ratification of many treaties, and some nations have been hesitant

to adopt enacting legislation nationally Cross-country growth and effectivity gap

consistently jeopardize AEC goals (since, for instance, of fears of brain drain or a race to the bottom), and cross-cultural and political dissimilarities have proven hostile with consensus building Therefore, in order to make ASEAN one comprehensively developing community, it is a must for the ten members to cooperate in assuring its

citizens a happy life Economic growth and human development need to go hand in

hand The flow of people and labor attributes to effective and productive use of human capital and catalyzes flow of knowledge through the region It is an integral piece of the AEC and consists of policies that alleviate the influx of tourists, students and skilled professionals, among others There is an increasing requirement within the region to take a more proactive role to aid and foster labor movement – particularly in captivating, absorbing and circulating ASEAN’s talented workforce – as some members become more knowledge-based economies that ask for more profound innovation Additionally, aging populations and unstable demographics will necessitate more effective application of human resources through regional cooperation

Concerning the subjective reasons, it is clearly seen that the more effective

cooperation within the region, the more existing issues relating labor migration can

be addressed Irregular migration, migrant women and domestic workers are the most prominent issues amongst others As to the first issue, irregular migration is

when there are no official documents or when people are working in informal sectors Irregular migration also occurs when migrants and/or employees access unusual channels Those who enter these channels are potentially in danger of violence inside workplace and go through the worst work conditions as well as face harassment, abuse and exploitation This is distressing, since these situations occur mostly due to their lack of access to the essential knowledge about laws and services, most particularly pre-departure training, which motivates people towards the choice of seeking low-skilled jobs People are often taken advantage of in the private economy by individuals or companies; are victims of involuntary sexual abuse; and/or are victims of forced labor exploitation in economic actions such as

agriculture, construction, domestic chores, or manufacturing Others are in government-obligated forms of forced labor The mixed movements are fixated at irregular populations that include refugees, migrant employees, asylum-seekers, sufferers of trafficking, smuggled migrants and unassociated minors This is a huge problem, taking into account that the probability of not fully registering all refugees and stateless people and yearly growing population sizes Unluckily, ASEAN has done little to no to address this situation [Gois, A.W., 2015]

Women’s contribution in labor migration in ASEAN is increasing, in numbers and

in share of total migrants In Singapore, the number of migrant domestic employees grew up from 160,000 in 2006 to over 200,000 to 2011 The rate of women migrant workers is also accumulating; in Indonesia, for instance, the percentage of women increased from 75 percent in 2006 to 83 percent in 2009, with over 90 percent being domestic ones A similar fraction of Lao women migrant workers are domestic In the Philippines, in 2011, women migrant workers overshadowed men at 217,830 to 181,145, of whom 135,870 were domestic These surges can be attributed to push and pull elements boosting migration that typically impact women Where recruitment choices for women in nations of origin are restricted, particular business sectors in countries of destination specifically tend to employ women A peculiarly gendered example is the domestic work and care sector (often looking after the children, the elderly, ill or disadvantaged alongside duties), as well as entertainment and hospitality industries Women are also employed into export-oriented producing industries, construction, sex, entertainment and hospitality duty These industries are frequently those regarded as less appealing to national employees, because of being stigmatized, low status and unsatisfactorily paid Migrant women are specifically exposed to labor harassment as a consequence of their dependency on recruiters to issue visas, accommodation and pay Moreover, they have little access

to information and encounter language barriers, which prevent them from knowing

or reporting insufficient treatment and/or conditions Labor inspections are helpful but don’t actually cover the unofficial sector, in spite of having a greater risk of

abuse and profiteering In the ASEAN are, manufacturing is one of the main sectors where women migrant employees experiences unexplained salary deductions for their medical charges, food and transport costs, even though they live within the vicinity of the plants Additionally, due to great need of domestic employees, managers are more likely to accept to pay for recruitment and training prices up front and employment agents are more likely to lend migrant these costs Besides, the largely low skilled characteristic of women’s employment and lack of abilities certification shows that they are occasionally not considered to have garnered skills while overseas and encounter the same, restricted employment profits as before moving Social stigma, comprising of that attached to women who oppose outdated gender standards by working abroad, can destructively impact them on return, at times ending up in risen pressure to (re)conform to gender roles, therefore limiting future freedom as well To make it worse, where women have endured physical or economic exploitation or harassment, they may come back with not enough money, capability to claim redress and with psycho-social problems that need to be presented before these ladies can move forward Treatment services are scarce, typically in rural settings, meaning that women who suffer harmful migration experiences may return to an even worse status than before they left [International Labour Organization and UN Women, 2015]

In relation to domestic employees, labor regulations usually forbid domestic

workers or fail to bring about efficient protection because of a shortage in enforcement As told by Martin and Abella in the “Reaping the Economic and Social Benefits of Labour Mobility: ASEAN 2015”, no member nation – with the exception of the Philippines – has specific rules for domestic workers Furthermore, Malaysia and Singapore have exclusion specification for domestic workers abroad This is really disturbing, as domestic work is the most widespread field of work for migrant employees from ASEAN Domestic workers also have higher possibility of facing exploitation and excessive working hours To a certain extent, they are considered modern-day servants with their immoral deals Some have told stories of

covering outrageous recruitment costs before being chosen and having their incomes deducted monthly, which usually leads to debt bondage with the recruiters Because of these shameful circumstances, they often choose to escape from their current employers and/or seek for new ones There are situations where recruiters hold the domestic’s worker’s travel papers, which make it hard for them to find jobs or come back home, even after their contract expires For that reason they are regarded as undocumented [Gois, A.W., 2015]

All of these specified concerns lead to a question of the position of ASEAN

in tackling these, and it calls for the agreement of the ten member states in taking steps towards giving the labor migrants better conditions

Respecting economy side, labor migration is an indispensable rule of the

transition economy and migrant workers are mostly from rural areas Remittances have now shown effects in reducing rural poverty In addition to ensuring the costs

of children's education, consumption (housing improvements, procurement of living equipment .), this type of money also brings profitable investments in equipment

or in small projects Remittances have increased rapidly over the past 10 years, playing a key role in agricultural development and in non-agricultural activities in rural areas (small businesses) Remittances clearly have an impact on poverty and social stratification Social stratification in rural areas today is no longer closely linked to the concept of land ownership, but increasingly tends to depend on income earned from migrants [Bộ Lao động – Thương binh và Xã hội, 2011] When labor migration can bring that much benefit to the home countries, this is another impulse for ASEAN to have a better cooperation in this field, because economic growth with no investment in human development in unsustainable

CHAPTER SUMMARY

Labor migration is a type of migration, especially international migration It describes the movement of persons from one country to another for the purpose of employment and they often stay in their new places temporarily According to Baštýř and col, labor migration can be divided into four types: incentive migration, demand migration, residential migration and commuting (oscillating) migration No matter what kind of the above, it is clearly perceived that labor migration plays a substantial role in the development of the world It does not only strongly affect economies, cultures, societies but also relations among countries and territories throughout the globe

In the era when labor migration has become more and more popular, the need for international cooperation is higher than ever Cooperation among ASEAN countries can be classified as either multilateral cooperation (based on the number

of actors participating in the cooperation) or regional cooperation (formed on spatial scale) It is agreed that regional and bilateral cooperation can promote the growth of policies and programs that are beneficial to concerned authorities and migrant workers by bringing in efficient protection and uphold services to them and their families; cultivating economic and social progress; and supporting legal forms of labor motility as a substitute to irregular migration It has been evident in various levels, regionally and globally In Asia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN) adopted the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the

Rights of Migrant Workers in March 2007 [ASEAN, 2007] The document is

important because it accords sufficiently with the ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration by means of concentrating on the protection and development of rights It places responsibilities on origin states, destination states and ASEAN, and understands the input of migrant workers to the community and economies of both origin and destination countries It aims to enhance endeavors to conserve the primary human rights of migrant employees and to strengthen their decent, humane, fruitful, honored and remunerative employment