SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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