Migrating to Opportunity: Overcoming Barriers to Labor Mobility in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The movement of people in Southeast Asia is an issue of increasing importance. Countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) send migrants throughout the world but are also important destinations for migrants from the region. ASEAN countries now supply 8 percent of the world’s migrants, up from 6 percent in 1995. They host only 4 percent of the world's migrants, but intraregional migra- tion has grown strongly. ASEAN is one of the few global regions in which the share of intraregional migration increased between 1995 and 2015 (figure O.1). This has turned Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand into regional migration hubs (figure O.2a). These three countries are now home to 6.5 million ASEAN migrants, 96 percent of the total. Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, and Myanmar are the major regional senders of migrants (figure O.2b).