Low-wage Labour Migration Regimes in Asia

This book explores how low-wage labour migration policies in seven Asian economies affect millions of migrant workers. It identifies two contrasting regulatory approaches that bookend a governance spectrum, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding which policies heighten workers’ vulnerability to exploitation and which improve their chances of success.

The book argues that the regulatory choice to either invest in and manage, or privatise and outsource, key labour migration governance functions has a material impact on outcomes for workers. Specifically, the data demonstrate that migrant workers in destination economies in Asia that take a government-managed approach pay lower recruitment costs, enjoy greater labour market mobility and earn higher wages as they benefit from greater labour law protections. Conversely, migrant workers in employer-managed regimes pay higher recruitment costs, have more limited labour market mobility, earn less and are more vulnerable to mistreatment at the hands of their employers. In addition to a thorough regional analysis, the book presents three case studies that examine the employer-managed approach followed by Singapore since the 1970s, the government-managed approach adopted by South Korea in 2004, and the government-managed approach pursued in Thailand including through legislative reforms implemented in 2017, and outcomes for low-wage migrant workers in all three countries. The final chapter argues that apex court judgments from these three countries reflect and reinforce their government’s approach to low-wage labour migration governance.

Identifying urgently needed reforms that would materially improve outcomes for millions of low-wage migrant workers in Asia and beyond, this book will be of interest to lawmakers, migrant worker advocates and researchers of Asian migration, labour migration, labour law and socio-legal studies.