Bangkok, Thailand
A ‘Freer’ Flow of Skilled Labour within ASEAN: Aspirations, Opportunities, and Challenges in 2015 and Beyond
Multimedia Tabs
Rabab Fatima, Regional Coordinator and Adviser for South and South West Asia/Regional Advisor for Climate Change and Migration, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Manuel Imson, Senior Program Officer/ Project Coordinator of the ASEAN TRIANGLE Project, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
Chantavit Sujatanond, Special Advisor, Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization Centre specializing in Regional Higher Education Development (SEAMEO RIHED)
Lutfi Rauf, Ambassador of Indonesia to Thailand
Jeffrey Labovitz, Chief of Mission, IOM Thailand
In 2007, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed on an ambitious goal to fast-track the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015, which would transform the ASEAN region into a single market and production base. This transformation would be based on five core components, including a free flow of skilled labor. In practice, the AEC has not made much progress towards full labor mobility even among high-skilled migrants and steps taken so far have been only to facilitate the movement, rather than ensure a free flow of labor. This Issue in Brief looks at the progress towards free movement of skilled migrants in the AEC, the aspirations, opportunities, and challenges in 2015 and beyond.
The International Organization for Migration and the Migration Policy Institute hosted this breakfast briefing to discuss these critical issues and launch the Issue in Brief, A ‘Freer’ Flow of Skilled Labour within ASEAN: Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges in 2015 and Beyond, the eleventh in this joint publication series offering succinct insights on migration issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region today. To read the series, visit: www.migrationpolicy.org/regions/asia-and-pacific.
