SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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Even before leaving home, migrant workers<br />
face risks and costs, such as from recruitment<br />
agencies charging very high fees to connect them<br />
to potential employees overseas. A Bangladeshi<br />
migrant worker, for example, may pay nearly<br />
$4,000 for a low-skilled job in the Middle East<br />
with wages of $200 a month, meaning the first<br />
20 months of work go only towards the initial fee.<br />
Fraudulent recruitment practices are abundant,<br />
with consequences that include workers being<br />
stuck, without legal paperwork, in a transit<br />
country, or not being paid promised wages. 38<br />
Lack of institutional support from both<br />
sending and receiving countries results in the<br />
neglect of migrant workers. Much needs to<br />
be done to better protect them before, during<br />
and after migration. Priority measures include<br />
ensuring proper implementation of labour laws,<br />
setting and upholding minimum wages and<br />
benefits, guaranteeing access to medical care,<br />
protecting undocumented workers, enhancing<br />
transparency in migration procedures and collecting<br />
data on the status of migrants, to list a<br />
few. Countries across the region are at different<br />
stages in the formulation of policies and implementation<br />
of practices to protect migrant rights.<br />
Box 2.5 highlights progress in the Philippines.<br />
BOX 2.5:<br />
Protecting the rights of migrant workers in the Philippines<br />
Migration policy in the Philippines is relatively advanced<br />
compared to other countries in Asia-Pacific,<br />
having been oriented around protecting those<br />
who choose to migrate rather than encouraging<br />
migration as a means of economic growth. Through<br />
bilateral agreements and national legislation, migration<br />
is managed from the stage of recruitment,<br />
throughout the migrants’ stay and safe return home.<br />
Remittances comprise about 10 percent of the<br />
Philippines’ GDP. Overseas Filipino workers mostly<br />
go to the Gulf States (about 67 percent), but a<br />
small portion also migrate to countries within the<br />
region, including China; Hong Kong, China (SAR);<br />
and Singapore. About 80 percent are employed as<br />
service or production workers, with large numbers<br />
serving as domestic workers.<br />
The Household Service Workers reform package<br />
Counter pervasive low wages and income inequality:<br />
Wage growth has been slow in most of<br />
Asia-Pacific, except for China, and has recently<br />
stagnated compared to the level before the 2008<br />
financial crisis. This is on top of the region’s<br />
already significant degree of working poverty.<br />
Average manufacturing wages in China, India<br />
and the Philippines are well under $2 per hour,<br />
compared to nearly $13 in Singapore and just<br />
over $18 in Japan. Wage workers earned only $73<br />
per month in Nepal in 2008, $119 per month<br />
in Pakistan in 2013 and $121 per month in<br />
Cambodia in 2012, 39 with the last two countries<br />
having the highest incidences of working poverty<br />
in the world. 40 At the same time, the share of<br />
labour income relative to capital earnings has<br />
declined, falling sharply in China, for example,<br />
where labour earnings were 42.4 percent of the<br />
total in 2007, down from 51.4 percent in 1995. 41<br />
This trend in part explains widening inequality<br />
in many countries.<br />
With growing awareness of pitfalls related<br />
to income disparity and non-inclusive growth,<br />
a number of countries have prioritized combating<br />
inequality in their national development<br />
agendas. As a response to the growing discontent<br />
of low-income people, China instituted<br />
introduced in 2006 for domestic workers abroad<br />
raised the minimum age to 23, requires workers to<br />
obtain pre-departure training on the language and<br />
culture of the destination country, sets a minimum<br />
monthly salary of $400, and facilitates training and<br />
skills development under the Technical Education<br />
and Skills Development Authority.<br />
In 2012, the Philippines became the second country<br />
to ratify ILO Convention 189 on domestic workers,<br />
a milestone for 2.5 million Filipino overseas<br />
workers whose rights will be protected and who will<br />
be sheltered from abuse. Through the convention,<br />
working terms and conditions between employers<br />
and employees will be formalized. Workers are also<br />
being provided with information booklets to learn<br />
about their rights and how to access help when<br />
facing difficult situations.<br />
Transparent migration<br />
procedures, minimum<br />
wages and access<br />
to medical care<br />
are critical for<br />
migrant workers<br />
Sources: Center for Migrant Advocacy 2011, The Philippine Migrants Watch, ILO 2014b.<br />
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