This report analyzes the labor migration trends in Asia and puts them in the context of economic and policy developments and the changes wrought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It examines the policy settings in the major origin and destination countries of labor migrants and the medium- and long-term factors that will shape the future of labor migration in Asia.
This report analyzes the labor migration trends in Asia and puts them in the context of economic and policy developments and the changes wrought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. It examines the policy settings in the major origin and destination countries of labor migrants and the medium- and long-term factors that will shape the future of labor migration in Asia. It further provides important recommendations for building back better in a post-pandemic world.This analysis draws partly on discussions that took place at the "10th ADBI-OECD-ILO Roundtable on Labor Migration: Future of Labor Migration in Asia: Challenges and Opportunities in the Next Decade," held in Bangkok, Thailand, in February 2020, an annual event co-organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Labour Organization that brings together regional experts and policy makers. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the publication focuses on the pandemic's impacts on labor mobility.The report offers up-to-date comparative statistics on labor migration flows, including evidence on the impacts of COVID-19 on flows and remittances. Two statistical annexes offer detailed country fact sheets and coverage of intra-Asia and cross-regional migration flows. The report also includes discussions on the future of labor migration in the aftermath of the pandemic and the role of technology and digitalization in labor mobility and its management.
Labor Migration in Asia: COVID-19 Impacts, Challenges, and Policy Responses analyzes labor migration trends in Asia and puts them in the context of economic and policy developments as well as the changes caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
As the world emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, this book explores current migration and integration challenges. Against the background of long-term migration trends, it asks whether the pandemic has changed the patterns observed, transformed the circumstances international migrants face at destination or whether the opportunities and challenges for integration have been altered. Twenty-four researchers have contributed to this volume with research attention on how COVID-19 has affected transnationalism and identity, labour market employment, and impacted the discrimination of migrants in a variety of ways. Loyalties and tensions created by the need to include also hesitant migrant groups in vaccination programmes are explored. The role of cosmopolitanism and welfare chauvinism in narratives on inward migrations flows, the stance of trade unions on migration, the complexities of implementing return policies, and the challenges faced by unaccompanied refugee youth from Afghanistan are also discussed.
This report examines the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on labor markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Labor markets in Southeast Asia were particularly hit hard in 2020, when government containment measures were most severe. COVID-19 has exacerbated growing inequalities in the region—hurting not just low-skilled workers but also middle-skilled workers whose jobs were already at risk from automation even before the pandemic. Large gaps in social protection coverage were also exposed. While the policy response has been significant, a narrowing fiscal space and the protracted nature of the pandemic still pose major challenges for recovery. The report aims to help policymakers identify priorities, constraints, and opportunities for developing effective labor market strategies for economic recovery and beyond.
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted about 1 billion migrants (both international and domestic) in a variety of ways, and this book demonstrates how COVID-19 has widened the gaps between citizens, non-migrant and migrant populations in terms of income, job retention, freedom of movement, vaccine etc.While there is an emerging literature studying the impacts of COVID-19 on migration, the situation in Southeast Asia has not received much scholarly attention. This book fills the literature gap by studying the experiences of migrants and citizens in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore and highlighting how the pandemic has exacerbated inequalities between and within the groups. These three countries are studied due to their high reliance of migrants in key economic sectors. Findings in this volume are derived from a qualitative approach, complemented by secondary data sources.This book is appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate students of population studies, epidemiology, political science, public policy and administration, international relations, anthropology, psychology, sociology, and migration and refugee studies. Migration and labour scholars benefit from the nuanced comprehension about how a pandemic could cause a schism between migrants and the population at large. Policymakers may consider the proposed recommendations in the book to improve the migration situation.
Not too long ago, the world was busy crafting a global future with unmitigated globalization and the relentless march of Industry 4.0. A black swan event then happened. An outbreak of COVID-19 coronavirus surged worldwide and resulted in a global pandemic that devastated economies, eliminated the weak/infirmed/elderly/young, and then targeted the general population. It destroyed small and medium-sized enterprises and hastened the demise of sunset industries, resulting in record numbers of bankruptcies. Instead of succumbing to the despair of a worldwide cataclysmic event, a group of Asian scholars from multiple disciplines got together. This group of scholars put their different specializations to use and adopted an on-site, viewpoint perspective of how the pandemic affected their lives and also the lives of the communities in their studies to contribute to this volume.The volume is interdisciplinary by nature and a product of exceptional contributions from a multidisciplinary panel of scholars, ranging from anthropologists, sociologists, historians to economists. The interdisciplinary approach employed here allows one to look at and understand subject matter critically — COVID-19 and its recovery — not just through diverse analytical frameworks but also through broader, historical variations as well as technologies studies. There is no existing literature equivalent to this subject matter given the ongoing pandemic as it unfolds simultaneously across regions and even continents while exerting differential impacts on various sectors such as agriculture, religion, technology, etc. With the advantage of its interdisciplinary approaches examined in differing geographical locations in Asia, the volume makes a scholarly contribution to analyzing the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak and the coping mechanisms adopted by humankind in various capacities to mitigate it.
The 2019 edition of the International Migration Outlook analyses recent developments in migration movements and policies in OECD countries and some non-OECD economies. It also examines the evolution of labour market outcomes of immigrants in OECD countries.
This open access book discusses the socio-political context of the COVID-19 crisis and questions the management of the pandemic emergency with special reference to how this affected the governance of migration and asylum. The book offers critical insights on the impact of the pandemic on migrant workers in different world regions including North America, Europe and Asia. The book addresses several categories of migrants including medical staff, farm labourers, construction workers, care and domestic workers and international students. It looks at border closures for non-citizens, disruption for temporary migrants as well as at special arrangements made for essential (migrant) workers such as doctors or nurses as well as farmworkers, ‘shipped’ to destination with special flights to make sure emergency wards are staffed, and harvests are picked up and the food processing chain continues to function. The book illustrates how the pandemic forces us to rethink notions like membership, citizenship, belonging, but also solidarity, human rights, community, essential services or ‘essential’ workers alongside an intersectional perspective including ethnicity, gender and race.
