Labour Migration in Southeast Asia: In search for regional governance

Labour migration has become one of the defining features of Southeast Asia, impacting the local, bilateral, transnational and regional level. Within the region, many of these labour migrants are employed in the so-called low-skilled sector, encompassing such diverse groups as Philippine migrant domestic workers in Singapore, undocumented Indonesian plantation workers in Malaysia and Burmese fishermen in Thailand. There is also increasing student migration, while Singapore has become a hub for global talent, including high-skilled workers from Southeast Asia. We thus find countries of origin, destination and transit in the region that are increasingly linked by the movements of people. Migration has the potential to literally bring the people in Southeast Asia closer together. Given the widely varying levels of development in the region, there are also important economic complementarities when it comes to migration.