Migrant Workers
The competition for workers generated by globalization has led to an increase in migration of people looking for better employment opportunities outside of their home countries. There are approximately 100 million migrant workers globally, playing an important role in the economies of destination countries. Money flows from migrant workers back to their home countries, in the form of remittances, also has positive impacts on the economies of developing countries.
According to the U.N. International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (ICMW), a migrant worker is a “person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State to which he or she is not a national.” In other words, a migrant worker is anyone that is employed outside of their home country. The term may also apply to a worker who migrates within a country – for example, from rural areas to urban centers – to find employment.
Despite their contribution to home and host states, migrant workers represent a particularly vulnerable population of workers in the international supply chain. Along with increased migration trends are increased reports of violations of migrant workers' rights, including inhumane treatment in immigration detention centers, unsafe working and living conditions, and unfair treatment in legal proceedings.
The primary instruments protecting migrant workers come from the United Nations and the International Labor Organization (ILO). In addition to the ICMW, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work extends protections to migrant workers. There also are two ILO conventions relating to migrant workers rights: Migration for Employment Convention, (Revised) 1949 (No. 97) and the Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143).
The protection of migrant workers rights has thus been ad hoc and experiential, with the most proactive work conducted by local NGOs and trade unions. The FLA’s aim is to expand the dialogue and bring new thinking to the issue through commissioned papers and stakeholder meetings, and to help facilitate bottom-up solutions to migrant worker issues.
Southeast Asia Overview
In 2007, the World Bank estimated that the nations of the Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) represent 9% of global movement of persons. The ten countries of ASEAN can be broadly divided into two groups, the ones that are mainly labor exporting – Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, and Vietnam – and those that are mainly labor receiving – Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand. The reality is that all ASEAN countries are all transit countries that receive and send migrants.
Of the 13.5 million migrants in the ASEAN, 40% or 5.3 million are moving to other ASEAN countries. Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore are the main receiving countries, hosting over 90% of intra-ASEAN migrants. The growing movement across the borders is a clear sign of regional labor market integration. ASEAN is working on development of a regional instrument on the protection and promotion of the rights of migrant workers, outlining obligations of labor-receiving states and labor-sending states for promoting the dignity of migrant workers.
Malaysia Overview
Since 1997, Malaysia has become one of the largest importers of foreign labor in Asia, recruiting migrant workers from more than 12 countries in Asia. According to the Malaysian Immigration Department, there are 751,500 migrant workers in the manufacturing sector, representing over 75% of the entire workforce in the sector. These workers come primarily from Indonesia (27%), Bangladesh (23%), Nepal (22%), Vietnam (13%), and Myanmar (11%).
Malaysia is a member of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and has committed to the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. Migrant workers also have protections and the right to redress under Malaysian labor laws and legislations. Despite the importance of migrant workers to Malaysian economy and the protections established in Malaysian law, national and international reports have independently documented a prevalence of labor and human rights violations against migrant workers during the recruitment process and their employment in Malaysia. The number of violations reported, as well as the high number of undocumented migrant workers, in Malaysia point to systemic issues in the country's labor migration policies and labor protection systems.
The dialogue on migrant workers issues in Malaysia is maturing; however, the approach has been primarily top-down and focused on engaging Malaysian Government Ministries to develop a comprehensive policy framework for migrant labor. Though this high level dialogue is important and on-going, it has also been slow to bring about any systemic policy changes.
The FLA is working in partnership with the Malaysian Bar Council to develop a bottom-up approach to work on migrant rights issues prevalent at the enterprise-level to define best practices and solutions to some of the challenges to improve the lives of migrant workers in the workplace. Together, the FLA and the Malaysian Bar Council hosted a Migrant Workers Rights Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable Discussion on August 5, 2009 in Kuala Lumpur. The meeting, which was attended by FLA affiliated companies, suppliers, local migrant rights organizations and trade unions, yielded some steps for factories to take immediately, as well as some greater aspirations for ongoing discussion.
FLA Reports
"Migrant Workers Rights Multi-Stakeholder Roundtable Discussion"
A report by the FLA and Malaysian Bar Council on the roundtable discussion held on August 5, 2009 in Kuala Lumpur.
Read the roundtable report
"Suppliers Meeting on Migrant Workers in Malaysia"
A follow-up roundtable discussion with suppliers of FLA affiliated companies held on November 23, 2009 in Singapore.
Read the roundtable report
FLA Papers
"Migrant Workers in Malaysia: Issues, Concerns and Points for Action"
The first in a series of papers commissioned by the FLA on migrant workers issues. The author, Philip S. Robertson Jr., is a Bangkok-based consultant on human rights, labor rights, labor migration and human trafficking, and development.
Read the paper
Additional Reading
"TF-AMW CS Framework Instrument on the Rights of Migrant Workers"
Read the ASEAN Civil Society Proposal for the ASEAN Framework Instrument on the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers
"The ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration"
Non-binding principles and guidelines for a rights-based approach to labor migration aims to assist governments, social partners and stakeholders in their efforts to regulate labor migration and protect migrant workers. The ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration provides a comprehensive set of rights-based guidelines and principles so as a global compilation of good practices on labor migration developed by governments and social partners.
Read the guidelines
More information is also available through the ILO's International Migration Programme.
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