(ILO, BANGKOK ) Representatives from thirteen East Asian economies will take part in a high-level symposium on managing labour migration in the region, to be held in Singapore this week.
Among the topics to be discussed at the three-day event are the causes and characteristics of East Asia ’s labour shortages, and measures being taken to regulate emigration, immigration and irregular migration.
The guest of honour will be Singapore ’s Minister of State for Manpower, Mr. Gan Kim Yong, who will also give the keynote address. Those participating will include representatives of Governments, workers’ and employers’ organizations from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong (SAR China), Indonesia, Japan, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam.
The “Regional Symposium on Managing Labour Migration in East Asia : Policies and Outcomes” is being jointly sponsored by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Wee Kim Wee Centre of Singapore Management University (SMU), and is also supported by the European Union. It will be held at SMU16-18th May 2007.
The workshop supports recent ASEAN initiatives to improve labour migration, notably as laid out in its Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.
The agenda includes discussions on the causes and characteristics of East Asia ’s labour shortages, irregular migration, and policies for governing labour emigration and immigration. In addition, regional experts will present case studies highlighting some current issues, including labour shortages in Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Malaysia; the impact of foreign labour in Taiwan; managing labour recruitment and migration in Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam; regulating foreign workers in Singapore and the Republic of Korea; and handling undocumented foreign workers in Malaysia and Thailand.
The symposium takes place against a background of dynamic growth in East Asia , combined with a decline in the population. This predicted to intensify labour shortages in the developed economies; the projected aggregate labour shortage in the migrant-receiving economies of Japan , Korea , Singapore , Hong Kong SAR, Thailand , and Malaysia is more than a million workers a year.
Migrants from the region’s labour sending countries – including the Philippines , Indonesia , Laos , Cambodia , and Myanmar – are expected to fill most of this shortage. But clandestine or irregular migration is adding complexity to the situation. For origin countries, irregular migration makes their workers more vulnerable to exploitation. For destination countries irregular migration creates distortions in the labour market and makes enforcing labour standards difficult. An approach that regards migration as a process to be managed rather than a problem to be solved is therefore crucial.
The Symposium is open to the media. For more information, please contact:
Mr. Manolo Abella,
International Labour Organization.
Tel. +66 (0) 81 908 7374
e-mail
Ms. Chan Sze Min,
Wee Kim Wee Centre
Lee Kong Chian School of Business
Singapore Management University
Tel: 6828 0753
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