Reaping the economic and social benefits of labour mobility: ASEAN 2015

Martin, Philip L., and Manolo I. Abella

ILO Working Papers from International Labour Organization

Abstract: The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) is moving towards closer economic integration among its Member States, including the free mobility of professionals and highly skilled workers. The freer flow of goods and capital will place path dependence, which encourages firms that already hire migrant workers to expand, in competition with wage convergence, which will reduce incentives for international labour migration. Most current AEC migrants are low skilled and most new migrants are likely to be low skilled. Governments need to acknowledge this reality and develop policies to liberalize and regularize the cross-border movements of labour. They cause mutual recognition agreements to promote the movement of professionals, and regulate the recruitment and employment of migrant workers, to ensure that migrant and local workers are treated equally. Demographic and economic realities suggest international labour migration within the AEC will increase making the implementation of the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers imperative, to ensure that labour migration promotes cooperation rather than conflict between AEC Member States.

Keywords: labour market; labour mobility; migrant workers.; workers rights; social security; interindustry shift; trade agreement.; economic implication; economic integration.; regional cooperation; marché du travail; mobilité de la main-d'oeuvre; travailleur migrant; droits des travailleurs; sécurité sociale; mutation interindustrielle; accord commercial; conséquences économiques; intégration économique; coopération régionale; mercado de trabajo; movilidad de la mano de obra; trabajador migrante; derechos de los trabajadores; seguridad social; desplazamiento industrial; convenio comercial; consecuencias económicas; integración económica; cooperación regional (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in ILO Asia-Pacific working paper series

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