Migration data in South-eastern Asia

Past (and present) trends in migration

Population movements have always been a defining part of the sub-region's history, beginning along historic trade routes with China, Central and Western Asia, Europe and along the coasts. In the 16th century, European colonisation brought growing plantations and industries, creating a demand for additional labour, met by workers from other Asian nations, including around 20 million Chinese and 30 million Indians who arrived between 1840 and 1940 (Amrith, 2014). Some settled in their host countries, leading to today’s multi-ethnic societies.

Decolonisation and the consolidation of the national independence of South-east Asian states after the Second World War went hand in hand with restrictive immigration policies, which led to a temporary reduction of labour migration. At the same time, the establishment of Malaysia triggered an exodus of around 270,000 persons from Peninsular Malaysia, about half of whom moved to Singapore (UN DESA, 2003).

In the 1960s, the Viet Nam War brought thousands of Korean and Filipino labourers to the region, as construction and service workers for US military installations in former South Viet Nam, Guam and Thailand. This decade also saw the development of permanent long-distance migration towards Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America, a trend which grew over time and continues today.

The 1970’s oil boom generated an upsurge in temporary labour migration to the oil-producing countries in Western Asia, amounting to major cross-national population movements in the region, including annual placements of up to 30,000 people from the Philippines alone. In the 1980s and 1990s, fuelled by bilateral agreements and national labour-export programmes, the geographic scope for labour migration widened and the numbers multiplied: Thailand’s annual export of labourers increased from about 6,000 to 60,000 in a single decade (ibid.).

After a dip due to the economic crisis of the late 1990s, migration has been increasing again, becoming more complex and diversified, due to globalisation, increased education levels and improved transport systems. Within the region’s individual countries, rural-urban migration is an important trend. Both long-term and short-term (seasonal and repeat/temporary) migration are common for internal migration in the region (UNESCO, 2016). Another significant flow is refugee movements: over a million Rohingyas have fled Myanmar in successive waves of displacement since the early 1990s, with Bangladesh as the main destination (UNHCR, 2019), and ongoing repatriation talks (UNHCR, 2021).

Labour migration, of high importance for the region, is driven by rural poverty and differences in wages and economic opportunities in the sub-region (UNESCO, 2016); existing social networks in host countries work as pull-factors, together with a well-established migration industry, comprising migration agents, recruiters, travel providers, immigration officials, etc. (GCIM, 2005). Within South-eastern Asia, the predominant countries of destination for domestic workers are Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia; the main countries of origin are Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar and Viet Nam (UNESCO, 2016).

Irregular migration flows – for example from the Mekong sub-region to Thailand and Malaysia, and from Indonesia to Malaysia (ILO, 2015b) – are significant, and many migrants have an irregular status in their country of destination. This applies, for example, to an estimated ten per cent of the overseas Filipino population, and is also frequently reported for migrants from Viet Nam, leaving mainly for Europe, North America and the Gulf region (UNODC, 2018).

While men tend to dominate rural-rural and seasonal migration, as well as sectors such as construction, agriculture, heavy manufacturing, fishing, and taxi/motor-taxi driving, the majority of rural-urban and long-term migrants are women, employed for instance as domestic workers, childminders, nurses and doctors, in garment manufacturing and in the sex and entertainment industries (ILO, 2018).

Several countries in the sub-region have an above-average percentage of women among their emigrating nationals: Thailand is in the lead with 61 per cent, followed by Malaysia (56.7 per cent) and the Lao People's Democratic Republic (55.9 per cent). In absolute numbers, the Philippines leads with more than 3 million female migrants, Indonesia has about 2 million and Viet Nam 1.7 million (UN DESA, 2020). Many originate from poor rural areas and migrate for economic reasons, but also for other opportunities such as access to education. Escaping patriarchal control and gendered expectations about female roles can also be relevant (IOM, 2020).

The fact that a significant number of migrants work in the sub-region’s large informal sector, often in low-paid jobs with little security, goes hand in hand with a risk of systemic exploitation and abuse. This includes, among others, social exclusion and discrimination, long working hours and strenuous physical activity, as well as no or limited access to basic necessities and public services, such as education, healthcare, sanitation, shelter, drinking water and food (UNESCO, 2016). A typical example is the Thai fishing sector, where an assessment revealed not only deceptive and coercive labour practices, but also that 17 per cent of the surveyed workers were working against their will and were unable to leave (ILO 2015c).

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic prompted the return of hundreds of thousands of migrants to their countries of origin. The return of more than 300,000 Filipino migrants, for example, reduced remittances to the Philippines by approximately 5 per cent to 33.3 billion USD in 2020. The whole sub-region suffered an even steeper decline of more than 8 per cent, with remittances dropping from about 76.9 billion USD in 2019 to an estimated 70.4 billion USD in 2020 (World Bank, 2020).

Data sources

• ASEANstats - the ASEAN Statistics Division provides statistical services to the ASEAN and its member states. Its main functions include:
  • Development of regional indicators, data frameworks and systems for monitoring ASEAN Community goals and initiatives;
  • Harmonization of ASEAN statistics – standardization of concepts, definitions, classifications, and approaches;
  • Implementation, coordination and facilitation of regional statistical programmes and activities;
  • Communication of statistical information on the ASEAN region and its Member States.

Its online database contains a variety of statistics and dashboards on the population and economy of its member states, including, among others, tourism and arrival numbers. The division’s publications include an annual statistical yearbook, as well as topical reports.

• International Labour Migration Statistics Database (ILMS) - brings together official government data on stocks and flows of international migrant workers within the ASEAN region, as well as information on nationals living or working abroad from 1990 to 2015.




• APEC Key Indicators Database - features over 120 economic, social and environmental indicators for APEC’s 21 member economies, sourced, among others, from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the United Nations, and includes the international migrant stock (absolute number and percentage of total population) as well as personal remittances paid and received (absolute number and percentage of GDP).




• UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) - a regional intergovernmental platform of 53 member states and 9 associate members, with a statistical database, data visualization and publications focusing on development issues.




• Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) - provides and analyses data on worldwide conflict/violence- and disaster-induced internal displacements, including the sub-region and its individual countries. It publishes an annual Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID).

Strengths and limitations of the data sources

Statistics and databases are only as good and accurate as the data they rely on. In the case of South-eastern Asia, accurate analysis and the comparison of data sets from different countries is difficult, due to several systemic weaknesses:

• A lack of harmonisation within the sub-region, regarding sampling and data collection methodologies and widely differing definitions of key terminology, which do not always correspond to international classification and standards. This renders comparison and analysis difficult (ILO, 2018).




• Data collected by some governments are too limited, lack detail, and frequently are not sufficiently aggregated, potentially masking underlying push factors, such as development contexts in rural regions (UNESCO, 2016).




• Coordination between central and local authorities, as well as governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, is often insufficient, which impacts negatively on the data-gathering processes (ibid.).




• Not all surveys and censuses are sufficiently disaggregated. At the same time, double-counting (for example, of migrants who cross the border more than once per year) is a challenge (ILO, 2015d).

Regional processes

- The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), established in 1967 in Bangkok, is the most important forum for regional integration in South-East Asia. Its ten member states (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, and Viet Nam) work towards the establishment of an Asian Community based on three pillars: the ASEAN Political-Security Community, the ASEAN Economic Community and the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community. Its achievements include the ASEAN Human Rights Declaration, the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, the ASEAN Plan of Action for Cooperation on Immigration Matters, and, at the end of 2020, the signature of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), a free trade agreement between ASEAN member states and Australia, China, India, Japan, the Republic of Korea and New Zealand.

• The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) - founded in 1994, is the only permanent multilateral body in the Asia-Pacific region dealing with security issues, including among others transnational crime, terrorism, piracy and disaster relief.




• ASEAN’s annual East Asia Summit (EAS) brings together 16 countries from Asia and Oceania, plus Russia and the USA. Among other achievements, it led to the establishment of the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), which also covers the topic of migration.All ASEAN member states participate in the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), an informal intergovernmental process fostering dialogue and cooperation between Asian and European countries, focussing on political, economic, financial, social, cultural, and educational issues. The topic of migration is, among others, addressed through the ASEM Conference of the Directors General of Immigration and Management of Migratory Flows.

- Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), founded in 1989, aims at trade and investment liberalization, trade facilitation as well as economic and technical cooperation. Its 21 members include Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam, as well as Australia, Canada, USA and the Russian Federation. 

- COMMIT Process - the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking - a high-level policy dialogue in the Greater-Mekong sub-region, focused on combatting human trafficking, migrant smuggling and forced labour through information exchange, coordination and joint activities. Its members are Cambodia, China, the Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam.

- Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime - a regional forum for policy dialogue, information sharing and practical cooperation, bringing together 49 member states and organisations, including the whole region of South-eastern Asia. It addresses practical issues related to smuggling, trafficking and related transnational crime, including information exchange, intelligence and best practices, law enforcement cooperation, protection and asylum issues, as well as awareness raising.

• Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam also take part in the Bali Process’ Ad-Hoc Group, which brings together the most-affected member countries and relevant international organisations to address specific irregular migration issues in the region through initiatives and specialized working groups.

- Abu Dhabi Dialogue (ADD) - officially the Ministerial Consultation on Overseas Employment and Contractual Labour for Countries of Origin and Destination in Asia, is a voluntary and non-binding inter-government consultative process on labour migration. It includes seven countries of destination and 11 countries of origin, the latter including Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.

- Colombo Process – the Regional Consultative Process on Overseas Employment and Contractual Labour for Countries of Origin in Asia - aims to foster safe, regular and managed migration. Its focus areas are protection and service provision to migrant workers, optimizing benefits of organized labour migration, capacity building, data collection and inter-state cooperation. Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are participants.

- Global Forum on Migration & Development (GFMD) - a voluntary, informal, non-binding and government-led process, which focuses on the multidimensional aspects of international migration and its inter-linkages with development. It is open to all UN Member States, as well as observer organisations. Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand belong to the GFMD Steering Group.

- Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)- a regional organization comprising seven member states in the vicinity of the Bay of Bengal: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand. Founded in 1997, it aims to enhance cooperation in 14 sectors, ranging from economic to social issues, including among others public health, poverty evaluation, tourism and transport, and counter-terrorism and transnational crime, which includes a sub-group on human trafficking and illegal migration. A Convention on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters has been drafted but not yet signed.

• Regional UN Network on Migration for Asia and the Pacific - supports its member states in implementing the 23 goals of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand are “Champion countries” for GCM implementation, receiving additional support from the UN Network on Migration in the form of a tailor-made piloting process, and tasked with sharing good practices and lessons learned with other member states.




• Asia – EU Dialogue on Labour Migration - a platform for inter-and intra-regional exchange of ideas and strategies on facilitating managed and legal migration between Asia and the European Union. It focuses on key trends and issues, as well as common policy concerns, and aims to facilitate safe and legal labour migration between the two regions. Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam are participants; Malaysia is an observer. 

The countries of South-eastern Asia have concluded numerous bilateral agreements on migration within and beyond the sub-region, frequently with a focus on labour migration. Here the Philippines are in the lead, with 13 agreements, followed by Malaysia, which has signed Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan, Viet Nam and Indonesia, regulating recruitment processes and procedures. Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam all have MoUs with the Republic of Korea, to facilitate the hiring of foreign workers.

Thailand signed bilateral MoUs with Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar on employment cooperation, and with Cambodia and the Lao People’s Democratic Republic on cooperation to combat trafficking in persons (ILO, 2021).