11th TechnicalMeeting of Focal Points on International Labour Migration Statistics in ASEAN

Background and Rationale

The ILMS Database in ASEAN has been published annually since December 2014 as a special collection on the ILO’s central database, ILOSTAT. In validating, annotating and gathering information from the relevant surveys and administrative records produced in ten ASEAN Member States (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam), the ILMS Database in ASEAN fills an important knowledge gap for national and regional policymakers and for the broader research community. The ILMS data is published on the ILOSTAT portal and is compiled also on the ILMS database in ASEAN website.

The ILO facilitates collection of ILMS data in ASEAN annually with the help of a network of ILMS focal specialists in up to 35 national data producing institutions in ASEAN Member States. The 2025 round of data collection was carried out by ILO Department of Statistics from October-December 2025. Statistics from official sources, including labour force surveys, censuses and administrative datasets, were collected on International Labour Migration Questionnaires (ILMQ) on the ILOSTAT STaRS platform found at https://ilostat-stars.ilo.org.

© ILO

© ILO

© ILO

© ILO

Objectives and focal areas

The objectives of the 11th Technical Meeting of Focal Points on ILMS in ASEAN were to:

• Share global and regional updates on collection and analysis of labour migration statistics,
• Review the status of ILMS database in ASEAN,
• Discuss ways to further improve data quality, collection and sharing among ASEAN Member States with focus on data collection on return migration, and
• Support ILMS focal points with the 2025 round of ILMS data collection.
• One-to-one sessions were also organized between country delegations and ILO experts to discuss country / agency specific challenges in completing the ILMS questionnaire or measuring labour migration.

Participants

The Meeting brough together over 70 participants including representatives from 24 data producing agencies in ASEAN Member States including national statistical offices and ministries responsible for labour, migration, immigration and citizens abroad etc. The participants also included representatives of the ASEAN Secretariat, experts from the ILO Regional Office in Asia and the Pacific and the ILO Department of Statistics in Geneva, as well as observers from the IOM and the Government of Canada.