Report IV

Addressing governance
challenges in a changing
labour migration landscape

International
Labour
Conference
106th Session, 2017
 ILC.106/IV

International Labour Conference, 106th Session, 2017

Report IV

Addressing governance
challenges in a changing
labour migration landscape

Fourth item on the agenda

International Labour Office, Geneva

ISBN 978-92-2-130565-1 (print)
ISBN 978-92-2-130566-8 (Web pdf)
ISSN 0074-6681

First edition 2017

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Printed by the International Labour Office, Geneva, Switzerland
Contents

Page
Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... v
Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1
Objectives and structure of the report ............................................................................... 3
Chapter 1. Global and regional labour migration trends ................................................... 5
1.1. Migrants in the world of work today: Global and regional trends ..................... 5
1.1.1. Global trends ..................................................................................... 6
1.1.2. Regional and subregional trends ....................................................... 7
1.1.3. Distribution of migrant workers by sector ........................................... 8
1.2. Demographic change and labour migration .................................................... 10
1.3. Characteristics of labour migration ................................................................. 10
1.3.1. Permanent labour migration .............................................................. 11
1.3.2. Temporary labour migration............................................................... 12
1.3.3. Highly skilled migration ...................................................................... 13
1.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 14
Chapter 2. Labour migration governance challenges ....................................................... 15
2.1. Benefits of labour migration and costs for migrant workers ............................ 15
2.1.1. Benefits of labour migration ............................................................... 15
2.1.2. Decent work deficits and labour migration costs ................................ 17
2.2. Role of labour market institutions and active labour market policies ............... 24
2.2.1. Labour inspection and access to justice ............................................ 25
2.3. Social dialogue ............................................................................................... 26
2.4. International cooperation ................................................................................ 27
2.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 3. Bilateral agreements on labour migration ....................................................... 31
3.1. Typology of and trends in bilateral labour migration agreements .................... 32
3.2. Bilateral labour migration agreements in an international context ................... 32
3.3. Governance challenges.................................................................................. 34
3.4. Good practices and the model agreement in
Recommendation No. 86 ............................................................................... 36
3.5. ILO support in the design and implementation of bilateral
labour migration agreements.......................................................................... 39
3.6. Migrant workers’ access to social protection under
bilateral agreements ...................................................................................... 40
3.7. Bilateral agreements between trade unions.................................................... 42
3.8. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 43

ILC.106/IV iii
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Chapter 4. Regional labour migration and mobility ........................................................... 45

4.1. Labour migration governance and regional integration:
Trends and challenges ................................................................................... 46
4.1.1. Historical trends and strategic importance of international
labour standards for regional integration ........................................... 46
4.1.2. Commonalities in labour migration governance ................................. 46
4.1.3. General trends in labour migration and mobility governance
in regional economic communities .................................................... 47
4.2. Challenges in and responses to the regional governance
of labour migration and mobility ..................................................................... 49
4.2.1. Improving data collection for policy-making
at the regional and national levels ..................................................... 49
4.2.2. Protection of migrant workers’ rights, including
fundamental principles and rights at work ......................................... 50
4.2.3. Matching of migrant workers’ skills and qualifications
to available jobs across borders ........................................................ 51
4.2.4. Enhanced social protection, including through the
coordination of social security rights and benefits.............................. 52
4.2.5 The role of social dialogue in regional labour mobility ........................ 52
4.2.6. ILO adaptation to challenges of regional integration .......................... 53
4.3. Regional economic communities, regional consultative processes on
migration and trade arrangements containing labour mobility components .... 55
4.3.1. Regional consultative processes on migration:
Lessons for technical assistance ....................................................... 55
4.3.2. Trade agreements and labour mobility............................................... 57
4.4. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 57
Chapter 5. Fair recruitment .............................................................................................. 59
5.1. Why fair recruitment is important .................................................................... 59
5.2. Reducing the recruitment costs of labour migration ........................................ 61
5.3. ILO normative and policy framework .............................................................. 62
5.4. Emerging fair recruitment policies and practices ............................................ 65
5.4.1. Eliminating recruitment fees and related costs................................... 65
5.4.2. Innovative regulatory frameworks ...................................................... 66
5.4.3. Effective grievance mechanisms ....................................................... 67
5.4.4. Government-to-government recruitment ............................................ 68
5.4.5. Bypassing labour intermediaries ........................................................ 68
5.4.6. Standard employment contracts and electronic
payment of wages ............................................................................. 68
5.4.7. Joint liability ....................................................................................... 69
5.4.8. Due diligence in supply chains .......................................................... 70
5.5. Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 71
Chapter 6. Conclusions and the way forward ................................................................... 73
6.1. Key conclusions ............................................................................................. 73
1. Protecting migrant workers and reducing the
costs of labour migration ................................................................... 73
2. Promoting fair recruitment migration corridors.......................................... 75
3. Improving statistics and data for evidence-based
policy-making .................................................................................... 76
6.2. Suggested points for discussion ..................................................................... 76

iv ILC.106/IV
Abbreviations

ACTRAV ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities

ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
AU African Union
CARICOM Caribbean Community
CAN Andean Community
CAS Committee on the Application of Standards
CEACR Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and
Recommendations
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
EU European Union
GCC Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf
ICLS International Conference of Labour Statisticians
ILC International Labour Conference
IMF International Monetary Fund
IOE International Organisation of Employers
IOM International Organization for Migration
ITUC International Trade Union Confederation
KNOMAD Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development
MoU memorandum of understanding
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
OHCHR Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
SADC Southern African Development Community

ILC.106/IV v
Introduction

1. At its 325th Session (November 2015), the Governing Body of the International
Labour Office agreed to hold a general discussion on labour migration at a future session
of the International Labour Conference (ILC), with particular reference to effective labour
migration governance at the national, bilateral, regional and interregional levels, and to
fair recruitment, 1 which are key components of the ILO Fair Migration Agenda. 2 This
discussion can provide important and timely guidance to strengthen the ILO’s work and
impact in the field of labour migration, and enhance the capacity of ministries of labour
and employers’ and workers’ organizations to influence policy formulation and
implementation, and engage in the promotion of fair migration. 3
2. The current political debate surrounding migration, however, is often based on
misperceptions about the relationship between migration, jobs and development, which
have been exacerbated by large movements of refugees, other forcibly displaced persons
and irregular migrants in various parts of the world, particularly in the Mediterranean
region. These misperceptions have made it more difficult to make the case for
well-governed labour migration as a positive force for sustainable development. Despite
the difficulties, it is even more urgent to discuss the governance of labour migration in the
light of the rapidly changing nature of work, widening economic and demographic
disparities, and the need for skills and jobs matching to meet labour market needs.
3. While migration is seen as a critical dimension of ongoing debates on the future of
work (one of the ILO’s seven Centenary Initiatives), 4 the challenges in governing labour
migration will grow due to trends such as technological changes, evolutions of the
employment relationship and erosion of the social contract between the State and other
actors. 5

4. At the same time, in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, member States
of the United Nations resolved to create the conditions for “decent work for all”,
recognized “the positive contribution of migrants for inclusive growth and sustainable

1ILO: Minutes of the 325th Session of the Governing Body of the International Labour Office, November 2015,
GB.325/PV, para. 32.
2ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO agenda, Report of the Director-General, Report I(B), ILC, 103rd Session,
2014, Geneva.
3ILO: Agenda of the International Labour Conference, Governing Body, 325th Session, Geneva, November 2015,
GB.325/INS/2, Appendix III, paras 22–23.
4 ILO: The future of work centenary initiative, Report of the Director-General, Report I, ILC, 104th Session, 2015,

Geneva, para. 61; ILO: Towards the ILO centenary: Realities, renewal and tripartite commitment, Report of the
Director-General, Report I(A), ILC, 102nd Session, 2013, Geneva.
5 See ILO: The future of labour supply: Demographics, migration, unpaid work, The Future of Work Centenary
Initiative Issue Note Series 2, Nov. 2016, p. 5, as well as other notes in this series available at:
http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/future-of-work/facet/lang--en/nextRow--0/index.htm.

ILC.106/IV 1
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

development”, and pledged that “no one will be left behind”. 6 Indeed, decent work and
migration cut across the whole 2030 Agenda, but are bound up specifically in Goal 8 on
economic growth and decent work, particularly target 8.8, and in Goal 10 on reducing
inequality within and among countries, particularly target 10.7. Decent work and labour
migration is also expected to feature strongly in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and
Regular Migration, which UN member States committed to adopt in 2018, along with a
separate Global Compact on Refugees (box 0.1). 7 These global developments, therefore,
make the general discussion on labour migration ever more relevant for the ILO’s
constituents.

Box 0.1
Towards a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration

In response to concerns relating to large movements of refugees and migrants, in

September 2016 the UN General Assembly adopted the New York Declaration for
Refugees and Migrants, which commits member States to adopt two global compacts in
2018: one on refugees and the other for safe, orderly and regular migration.

The purpose of the global compact for migration is to set out a range of principles,
commitments and understandings among UN member States regarding international
migration in all its dimensions, and to address all aspects of international migration,
including the humanitarian, developmental, human rights-related and other aspects of
migration. The compact is to be guided also by the 2030 Agenda, and may include
actionable commitments, means of implementation and a framework for follow-up and
review of implementation.

The President of the General Assembly appointed two co-facilitators (the Permanent
Representatives of Mexico and Switzerland in New York) to lead the intergovernmental
consultations and negotiations, which will occur in three phases.

Phase I comprises a series of consultations and informal meetings supported by the

Secretary-General and drawing on the expertise of the International Organization for
Migration (IOM) and other members of the Global Migration Group (April–November 2017)
around six thematic areas: (1) human rights of migrants; (2) irregular migration and regular
pathways, including decent work, labour mobility and recognition of skills and
qualifications; (3) international cooperation and governance of migration; (4) contributions
of migrants and diasporas to all dimensions of sustainable development, including
remittances and portability of earned benefits; (5) addressing drivers of migration,
including adverse effects of climate change, natural disasters and human-made crises;
and (6) smuggling of migrants, trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery.
Multi-stakeholder regional and subregional consultations are also envisaged.

Phase II envisages stock-taking of the inputs at a preparatory meeting convened by

the co-facilitators in Mexico in late November 2017. The chairperson’s summary of this
meeting will form the basis of the zero draft of the Compact.

6United Nations (UN): Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, General
Assembly, 70th session, A/RES/70/1, 21 Oct. 2015.
7 This report, however, focuses on migration governance in respect of migrant workers and not refugees and other
forcibly displaced persons, in line with the Governing Body decision on the scope of the discussion.

2 ILC.106/IV
 Introduction

Phase III consists of intergovernmental negotiations on the Compact, beginning in

February 2018 at UN Headquarters in New York. These will culminate in an
intergovernmental conference to adopt the Compact immediately prior to the opening of
the general debate of the 73rd session of the General Assembly.
Source: UN: New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, General Assembly, 71st session, A/RES/71/1,
3 Oct. 2016; idem.: Modalities for the intergovernmental negotiations of the global compact for safe, orderly and
regular migration, A/71/L.58, 30 Jan. 2017.

Objectives and structure of the report

5. This report aims to contribute to an informed and balanced discussion of the issues
surrounding migration and work. It examines the role of the ILO and its constituents in
attaining a fair and effective governance of labour migration that benefits societies of
origin and destination, protects the rights of migrant workers and their families, and
enhances social cohesion.
6. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main global and regional trends relating to
labour migration. Chapter 2 focuses on key challenges for labour migration governance
and emphasizes the linkages between reducing decent work deficits and labour migration
costs, creating strong and functional labour market institutions and active labour market
policies, and strengthening international cooperation. Chapter 3 focuses on bilateral
agreements relating to labour migration, an important aspect of international cooperation
on migration, and considers how they can contribute to improved labour migration
governance, including fair recruitment. Chapter 4 examines the challenges in facilitating
labour migration and mobility 8 at the subregional and regional levels, particularly in
regional economic communities in Africa, the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific and Latin
America, as well as in interregional cooperation, with reference to ILO interventions.
Chapter 5 discusses the fair recruitment of migrant workers, with particular reference to
the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment, the
internationally agreed commitment to reduce the costs of labour migration, and
implementation of the ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative. Chapter 6 considers the way
forward and proposes some points for discussion.
7. Throughout the report, references are made to the ILO’s standards and policy
frameworks, previous discussions at the International Labour Conference and the
Governing Body, and ILO development cooperation activities, as well as related
discussions at the global level, including in the UN General Assembly, the Global Forum
on Migration and Development and the Global Migration Group.

8 The report uses “labour mobility” to refer to temporary or short-term movements of persons for
employment-related purposes, particularly in the context of the free movement of workers in regional economic
communities. See Chapter 4.

ILC.106/IV 3
Chapter 1

Global and regional labour

migration trends
8. Migration today is linked, directly or indirectly, to the quest for decent work
opportunities. Even if employment is not the primary driver for the initial movement, it
usually features in the migration process at some point. Family members joining migrant
workers abroad may also take up work, either as employees or in self-employment. 1
9. Labour migration is an increasingly complex and dynamic phenomenon taking place
within and between all regions of the world. In certain migration corridors, such as
between Asia and the Arab States and within South-East Asia, the number of international
migrants, the large majority of whom are migrant workers, has tripled since 1990.
Temporary labour migration, particularly of low-skilled workers, is exceeding permanent
flows, and this presents a significant governance challenge in terms of ensuring decent
work and reducing migration costs for this category of migrant workers (see Chapter 2).

1.1. Migrants in the world of work today:

Global and regional trends
10. Recent years have witnessed wide-ranging efforts to produce reliable and
comparable data on labour migration. However, the data gap remains significant, as noted
by the ILO 2 and the international community. 3 In response, the ILO has produced global
and regional estimates on migrant workers. 4 It has also established a working group on
labour migration statistics to set global guidance and promote consistent collection and
harmonization of labour migration data that can better support evidence-based
policy-making (box 1.1). The need for better-quality data on labour migration is also
underscored in the 2030 Agenda, notably Goal 17 on strengthening the means of
implementation and revitalization of the Global Partnership for Sustainable
Development. 5

1ILO, OECD and World Bank: The Contribution of Labour Mobility to Economic Growth, joint paper for the G20
Labour and Employment Ministers’ Meeting, Ankara, Turkey, 3–4 September 2015, pp. 3–4.
2
See the outcome of the discussion by the Committee on the Application of Standards of the General Survey
concerning the migrant workers instruments, ILC, Provisional Record No. 16-1, 105th Session, 2016,
para. 106(12).
3UN: New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, General Assembly, 71st session, A/RES/71/1, 3 Oct.
2016, para. 40; idem.: Declaration of the UN General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration
and Development, 68th session, A/RES/68/4, 21 Jan. 2014, para. 28.
4 ILO: ILO global estimates on migrant workers: Results and methodology, Geneva, 2015.
5UN: Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, General Assembly, 70th session,
A/RES/70/1, 21 Oct. 2015, target 17.18.

ILC.106/IV 5
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Box 1.1
ILO working group on labour migration statistics
In October 2013, the 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, the ILO’s
statistical standard-setting mechanism, adopted resolution IV concerning further work on
labour migration statistics, which recommended that the Office establish a working group
“with the aim of sharing good practices, [and] discussing and developing a workplan for
defining international standards on labour migration statistics that can inform labour
market and migration policy”. The working group comprises representatives of tripartite
constituents and senior labour migration statistics experts, and has held two meetings, in
Istanbul in October 2015 and in Turin in November 2016. Its focus has been to identify the
main conceptual issues and to recommend the concepts and definitions to be used in
building national statistics on international labour migration. The results of these efforts
will contribute to the next discussion of the International Conference of Labour Statisticians
in 2018 and the development of international concepts and standards on labour migration
statistics agreed worldwide.
Source: 19th International Conference of Labour Statisticians, Report of the Conference, Report III, 2–11 October
2013, Geneva, ICLS/19/2013/3, p. 68.

1.1.1. Global trends

11. The current estimates show that, in 2015, the stock of international migrants reached
244 million, 6 having risen by 71 million or 41 per cent since 2000, and now amounts to
3.3 per cent of the global population. 7 While the proportion of global population remained
essentially the same over that period, there has been dynamic change in patterns of
movements. While migration to developed economies and the recent increase of
low-skilled labour migration to the Arab States continue to account for a large share of
international migrants globally, 57 per cent of the increase in total migration between 2000
and 2013 was due to higher levels of South–South migration. 8
12. Slightly less than half of all international migrants (48.2 per cent) are women.
Children (aged 0–14 years) comprise 10.4 per cent of international migrants, and a further
21.2 per cent are young people between the ages of 15 and 29. 9
13. According to the ILO global estimates, in 2013 there were 150 million migrant
workers: 83.7 million men (55.7 per cent) and 66.6 million women (44.3 per cent). 10
Migrant workers represent 4.4 per cent of the global workforce, higher than the proportion
of international migrants in the global population. More migrant women than non-migrant
women (67 per cent as compared to 50.8 per cent) participate in the labour force, whereas
participation rates of migrant and non-migrant men are essentially the same (78 per cent
as compared to 77.2 per cent). 11

6UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA), Population Division: Trends in International
Migrant Stock: The 2015 Revision, UN database, POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2015.
7 UN-DESA Population Division: International Migration Report 2015: Highlights, New York, 2016, pp. 5 and 21.
8 ILO: World of Work Report 2014: Developing with Jobs, Geneva, 2014, p. 189.
9UN-DESA Population Division: Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Age and Sex, UN database,
POP/DB/MIG/Stock/Rev.2015.
10 ILO global estimates, op. cit., pp. 5–6. For the purpose of these estimates, the term “migrant worker” refers to
all international migrants who are currently employed or are unemployed and seeking employment in their country
of current usual residence, ibid., p. 28.
11 ibid., pp. 6, 7 and 8 (table 2.3).

6 ILC.106/IV
 Global and regional labour migration trends

1.1.2. Regional and subregional trends

14. Almost half of all migrant workers (48.5 per cent) are concentrated in North America
and Northern, Southern and Western Europe, while just over one fifth (21.9 per cent) are
in Asia (all subregions) and the Pacific. The Arab States account for over one tenth of the
global population of migrant workers (figure 1.1). This is a trend that has changed in the
past two decades. The largest proportion of migrant workers as a share of all workers in
the labour force is found in the Arab States (one third), followed by North America
(one fifth) and Northern, Southern and Western Europe (one sixth). 12

Figure 1.1. Distribution of migrant workers living in each subregion, as a percentage

of total migrant workers (men and women), 2013

North America 24.7

Northern, Southern & Western Europe 23.8

Arab States 11.7

Eastern Europe 9.2

South-Eastern Asia & the Pacific 7.8

Southern Asia 5.8

Sub-Saharan Africa 5.3

Central & Western Asia 4.7

Eastern Asia 3.6

Latin America & the Caribbean 2.9

North Africa 0.5

0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Percentage
Source: ILO global estimates, op. cit., p. 17, figure 2.17.

15. When disaggregated by sex, 52.9 per cent of all women migrant workers and 45.1 per
cent of all men migrant workers work in North America and Northern, Southern and
Western Europe, whereas 17.9 per cent of all men migrant workers globally are employed
in the Arab States as compared to only 4 per cent of all women migrant workers. Over one
tenth of all women migrant workers (11.1 per cent) are employed in Eastern Europe. Given
this distribution, it is not surprising to find that nearly 75 per cent of all migrant workers
are in high-income countries. Indeed, one in six workers in high-income countries is a
migrant. 13 Nonetheless, as noted in section 1.1.1 above, South–South migration is the
fastest-growing trend.
16. International migration has grown significantly in some key migration corridors. For
example, the number of international migrants from Asia to the Arab States, many of
whom are migrant workers, has more than tripled, from 5.7 million in 1990 to 19 million
in 2015. 14 Within the ten countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian

12 ibid., pp. 6, 7 and 19.

13 ibid., p. 10.
14 UN-DESA: Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2015 Revision, op. cit.

ILC.106/IV 7
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Nations (ASEAN), the number of migrants has also tripled since 1990, with nearly
two thirds coming from another ASEAN member State. 15 In addition, persons forcibly
displaced by persecution, conflict-induced situations, poverty and environmental or
climate impacts numbered over 65 million at the end of 2015. 16 These trends have created
enormous challenges for governance.

1.1.3. Distribution of migrant workers by sector

17. According to the ILO estimates, migrant workers are concentrated in certain
economic sectors. In 2013, 106.8 million migrants were employed in the services sector,
representing 71.1 per cent of all migrant workers. 17 Of these, 7.7 per cent were employed
as domestic workers. The remainder work in industry, including manufacturing and
construction, and in agriculture (figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2. Global distribution of migrant workers, by broad

branch of economic activity, 2013 (percentage)

Agriculture,
11.1%
Other services,
63.4% Industry,
17.8%

Domestic work,
7.7%

Source: ILO global estimates, op. cit., p. 9 (figure 2.6).

18. There are some notable gender differences in the distribution of migrant workers by
sector. Both sexes account for almost exactly the same proportion (around 11 per cent) in
agriculture. In industry, there is a greater proportion of men than women migrants
(19.8 per cent of men as opposed to 15.3 per cent of women), while more women than
men migrants work in the services sector (73.7 per cent to 69.1 per cent). This difference
in the services sector, however, is accounted for by a markedly greater engagement of
women in domestic work, which, as discussed in section 1.2 below, is set to grow in the
light of demographic changes. Consequently, in relative terms, a higher proportion of men

15 ibid.
16
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees: Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2015,
Geneva, 2016, p. 2; Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, http://www.internal-displacement.org/.
17 ILO global estimates, op. cit., p. 8.

8 ILC.106/IV
 Global and regional labour migration trends

migrant workers are engaged in services other than domestic work compared to women
migrant workers (65.4 per cent of men as compared to 61 per cent of women). 18
19. With regard to domestic work, of the estimated 67.1 million domestic workers in the
world in 2013, 11.5 million or 17.2 per cent were migrant workers, with 79.2 per cent
concentrated in the high-income group of countries. Around 73.4 per cent (or 8.45 million)
of all migrant domestic workers are women. 19 The Arab States host the largest share
(27.4 per cent) of the global total of migrant domestic workers, and just over half
(50.8 per cent) of the global number of men migrant domestic workers, amounting to over
10.4 per cent of all men migrant workers in that region. Concerning the global number of
women migrant domestic workers, South-Eastern Asia and the Pacific host the largest
share, at just under one quarter (figure 1.3). 20

Figure 1.3. Distribution of migrant domestic workers, by sex and broad subregion

5
Sub-Saharan Africa 3.6
8.9
3.8
Southern Asia 1.2
10.9
19.4
South-Eastern Asia & the Pacific 24
6.8
19.2
Northern, Southern & Western Europe 22.1
11.3
5.5
North America 6.9
1.9
0.6
North Africa 0.6
0.6
6.5
Latin America & the Caribbean 8.1
2.1
0.7
Eastern Europe 0.7
0.7
9.5
Eastern Asia 11.7
3.6
2.2
Central & Western Asia 2.1
2.5
27.4
Arab States 19
50.8

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Percentage
Total Female Male

Source: ILO global estimates, op. cit., figures 2.21 and 2.22.

18 ibid.
19 ibid., pp. 6–7, 10–11.
20ibid., p. 20. For additional data and analysis on migrant domestic workers globally, see M.-J. Tayah: Decent work
for migrant domestic workers: Moving the agenda forward, ILO, Geneva, 2016.

ILC.106/IV 9
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

1.2. Demographic change and labour migration

20. Ageing populations and declining national labour forces in most advanced
economies and some large emerging economies suggest that migrant workers will play an
important role in maintaining labour supply and filling labour shortages, as well as in
contributing to social protection funds in these countries. 21 Indeed, this is already
occurring, as in recent years migrants represented 47 per cent of the increase of the labour
force in the United States and 70 per cent in Europe. 22 In advanced economies, one fifth
of the population is already aged 60 or older, and the expectation is that this share will rise
to more than 30 per cent by 2050; meanwhile in many developing countries, less than
10 per cent of the population is aged 60 or older. Labour migration could, therefore,
leverage this difference in population age structures, potentially benefiting both developed
and developing economies. 23 However, while international migration contributes
significantly to population growth in North America, Oceania and Europe – where the size
of the population would have declined during the period 2000–2015 in the absence of
positive net migration – and can also play a role in modifying old-age dependency ratios,
it cannot reverse the trend of population ageing. 24 Given that during the period from 2015
to 2050, old-age dependency ratios are projected to increase significantly in Europe, North
America, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Oceania, 25 migration for domestic and
care work is also set to grow, thus reinforcing the global care chain (box 1.2).

Box 1.2
The global care chain
The feminization of domestic and care labour creates a global care chain, a term
coined by Arlie Hochschild to describe “a series of links between people across the world
based on the paid and unpaid work of caring”. Ageing populations and women’s increasing
participation in the global labour force create more demand for paid domestic work and
care work by private households which, in a context of shrinking public budgets for care
services, need to seek private solutions to care needs. The migrant women and men who
fill those positions then rely on relatives or informal and low-paid workers to care for their
own families, creating a chain effect. Migrants’ families (particularly female relatives such
as mothers or eldest daughters) who take over unpaid domestic and care work may find
that doing so limits their own ability to take up economic or education opportunities. This
phenomenon results in the transfer of caring responsibilities from women to other women
in often unprotected and precarious conditions, perpetuating labour market segregation,
gender inequalities and discrimination.
Source: Adapted from T. O’Neill et al., Women on the move: Migration, gender equality and the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, Overseas Development Institute Briefing, July 2016, p. 6.

1.3. Characteristics of labour migration

21. In general, migration for employment can be highly skilled or less skilled, permanent
or temporary. Over one third (60 million) of all migrant workers are considered to be

21 ILO, OECD and World Bank: The Contribution of Labour Mobility to Economic Growth, op. cit., p. 4.
22 OECD: Is migration good for the economy?, Migration Policy Debates, May 2014, p. 2.
23 ILO: World of Work Report 2014, op. cit., p. 189.
24 UN-DESA: International Migration Report 2015: Highlights, op. cit., pp. 21 and 23.
25 ibid., p. 23.

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 Global and regional labour migration trends

skill-based migrants. 26 Permanent migration for work is largely a feature in high- and
middle-income countries and is being surpassed by temporary labour migration,
particularly in those corridors characterized by increasing migration flows, as noted in
section 1.1.2 above. Permanent migrants normally settle in the destination country, where
some choose to become naturalized citizens, while temporary migrants stay and work in
the country for a defined period of time, which may range from a few months to several
years. 27 Migrant workers with a higher level of skills find it generally easier to settle in
the destination country than low-skilled workers. 28
22. As discussed in Chapter 2, less-skilled migrant workers are more frequently exposed
to decent work deficits and bear higher labour migration costs. They constitute the large
majority of migrant workers worldwide and their share in total labour migration has been
growing in recent years, giving rise to serious concerns regarding the efficiency and equity
of labour migration. They are also more likely to be in an irregular status. While irregular
migration is by definition difficult to measure, one recent estimate maintains that
approximately one fifth (50 million) of all international migrants are unauthorized. 29

1.3.1. Permanent labour migration

23. Permanent labour migrants primarily go to countries belonging to the Organisation
for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), some middle-income countries in
South America, and the Russian Federation. Overall permanent migration flows to OECD
member countries reached 4.3 million entries in 2014, with an increase of around 10 per
cent to 4.8 million in 2015 according to preliminary data. Just over 1 million new
permanent migrants went to the United States and 2.1 million migrants, half of whom were
non-European Union (EU) nationals, went to EU member States. In 2014, Germany
remained the second-largest immigration country after the United States, receiving more
than 13 per cent of all permanent immigrants to the OECD countries. Family migration
accounts for over one third of overall permanent migration flows to OECD countries.
Although migration for work of third-country nationals to OECD countries represents only
14 per cent of total permanent migration flows, free-movement migration, which
represents the second-largest category of permanent migration (32 per cent), also involves
labour mobility (figure 1.4). 30 In South America, in addition to Chile, Argentina saw a
steady increase in permanent immigration flows, from 81,000 in 2008 to 139,000 in

26A.T. Fragomen, Jr.: The Business Case for Migration: The GFMD Business Mechanism’s Position Paper and
Recommendations for Presentation at the Ninth GFMD Summit, Global Forum on Migration and Development,
Bangladesh, December 2016, p. 4.
27The Organization of American States (OAS) and the OECD define the broader categories of temporary and
permanent (im)migrants as follows: “A temporary immigrant is a person of foreign nationality who enters a country
with a visa or who receives a permit which is either not renewable or only renewable on a limited basis. Temporary
immigrants are seasonal workers, international students, service providers, persons on international exchange, etc.
A permanent immigrant... is a person who enters with the right of permanent residence or with a visa or permit
which is indefinitely renewable. Permanent immigrants would generally include marriage immigrants, family
members of permanent residents, refugees, certain labor migrants, etc.” See OAS and OECD: International
Migration in the Americas: Third Report of the Continuous Reporting System on International Migration in the
Americas (SICREMI), Washington, DC, 2015, p. 3 (box 1).
28ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO agenda, Report of the Director-General, Report I(B), ILC, 103rd Session,
2014, Geneva, paras 72–74.
29 J. Chamie: “Understanding Unauthorized Migration”, Inter Press Service, New York, 15 Nov. 2016.
30 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2016, Paris, 2016, pp. 15–18 (and table 1.1).

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

2013, 31 and in the Russian Federation the Federal Migration Service issued
149,000 permanent residence permits in 2015. 32

Figure 1.4. Permanent migration flows to OECD countries by category of entry, 2014 (percentages)

Other
5%
Humanitarian Family
9% 33%

Accompanying
family of
workers
7%

Work
14%

Free movements
32%

Source: OECD, International Migration Outlook 2016, op. cit., p. 19, figure 1.2, panel B.

1.3.2. Temporary labour migration

24. Temporary labour migration occurs in all parts of the world. In some regions and
subregions, such as South-East Asia, Africa and the Arab States, labour migration flows
are largely of a temporary nature, while permanent migration is complemented by
temporary labour migration in established countries of immigration (such as Australia,
Canada, New Zealand and the United States) as well as in a number of European countries.
The perceived value of temporary labour migration to countries of destination is its
flexibility to meet short-term demand for high- and low-level skills, thus allowing host
country labour markets to adjust to shifting economic conditions. 33 Positive consequences

31 OAS and OECD: International Migration in the Americas, op. cit., p. 5 (table 1).
32 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2016, op. cit., p. 296.
33
OECD: International Migration Outlook 2015, Paris, 2015, p. 21; ILO: Labour migration and development: ILO
moving forward, Background paper for discussion at the ILO Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration,
Geneva, 4–8 November 2013, p. 4.

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 Global and regional labour migration trends

for origin countries include remittances and the return of migrants with knowledge and
initiatives that assist with their development. 34
25. In the OECD area, temporary migrant workers comprise a number of different
categories at varying skill levels, including highly skilled engineers, IT consultants,
intra-company transferees and posted workers, and lower-skilled seasonal workers and
working holidaymakers. 35 Other groups of temporary migrants, such as students and
trainees, are also normally permitted to access the labour market to a certain degree. In
2014, over 1 million temporary work visas were issued in Canada and the United States
alone (365,750 and 732,000, respectively). 36 Other significant recipients of temporary
migrant workers among OECD countries are Australia, Republic of Korea, Mexico, New
Zealand and Poland. 37
26. With regard to non-OECD countries, Brazil experienced an increase in temporary
migration flows (generally for work or study) from 51,000 in 2009 to 103,500 migrants
in 2013. 38 Temporary labour migration to the Russian Federation is also significant, with
3.7 million licenses issued to nationals of visa-free States and work permits granted
in 2014. 39 In 2013, the Gulf States hosted over 22 million migrant workers, with Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ranked as the fourth and fifth largest destinations for
migrant workers in the world. The proportion of migrants in the total population is over
50 per cent in four of the six countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of
the Gulf (GCC), with proportions of migrants particularly pronounced in the United Arab
Emirates (88 per cent), Qatar (86 per cent) and Kuwait (69 per cent). Most migrant workers
to the GCC today come from the South Asian countries of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan;
Egypt, Ethiopia and the Philippines are some of the other important countries of origin. 40
South Africa is also a country that receives more temporary than permanent migrants.
Between 2010 and 2013, over 91,000 applications for work-related temporary residence
visas were received, with nationals from China, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Nigeria
accounting for 65 per cent of these applications. 41

1.3.3. Highly skilled migration

27. Highly skilled labour migration can be both temporary and permanent, and many
high-income countries have policies in place to attract highly skilled migrants. For
example, in 2014–15, two thirds of Australia’s Migration Programme involved visas
granted through the Skill stream (127,800 visas), while in 2014 more than half (52 per
cent) of permanent residents between 25 and 64 years of age admitted to Canada had
completed post-secondary studies. 42 In the United States, 161,400 visas were issued in
2014 to temporary migrant workers in speciality occupations (H-1B visas), mostly to

34
C. Dustmann and J.-S. Görlach: The Economics of Temporary Migrations, London, Centre for Research and
Analysis of Migration, Discussion Paper 03/15, p. 35.
35 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2015, op. cit., pp. 21–22.
36 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2016, op. cit., pp. 246 and 312.
37
ibid., pp. 238, 274, 282, 286 and 290 respectively.
38 OAS and OECD: International Migration in the Americas, op. cit., p. 5 (table 1).
39 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2016, op. cit., p. 296.
40M.-J. Tayah and H. van de Glind: The Situation of Migrant Workers in the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation
Council, ILO Internal Briefing, Oct. 2015 (unpublished), pp. 13–15.
41Government of South Africa, Department of Home Affairs: Green Paper on International Migration, 24 June
2016, p. 27.
42 OECD: International Migration Outlook 2016, op. cit., pp. 238 and 246 respectively.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

nationals from India (67 per cent) and China (9 per cent), and 164,600 intra-company
transferees were accepted in 2015. 43
28. While worldwide skills deficits require a range of policy measures that also address
human resource development at the national level, temporary highly skilled migration can
be part of the overall response. In this regard, identifying skills needs through bilateral and
regional cooperation, as discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, is one policy response. Fair
recruitment practices that effectively match migrants’ skills to available jobs is another
(Chapter 5). There is also a need to better understand skills needs today in light of the
changing nature of work. Some analysts estimate a potential global shortage of up to
85 million highly skilled and medium-skilled workers in 2020. 44 The European
Commission has identified that by 2020, 16 million jobs in the EU will require a high level
of qualifications. 45 In some sectors, such as nursing, the shortages are particularly acute
in both developed and developing countries. 46 Business leaders view “having the right
talent as the most critical factor for their business growth”. 47 Innovative solutions will
therefore be needed to attract, retain and deploy key skilled workers globally, which
companies are already undertaking through support for worker training from pre-school
through to post-graduate education, and bureaucratic regulations and procedures must be
eased to facilitate the admission of highly skilled migrant workers. 48 At the same time,
improved labour migration policies, covering all skill levels, cannot be a substitute for
effective domestic education and training reforms. Labour migration policies should be
complementary and stimulate further innovation in education systems, at both national and
regional levels.

1.4. Conclusion
29. Current global and regional trends demonstrate the dynamism and complexity of
labour migration. South–South migration flows, including migration to neighbouring
countries, are as significant as South–North flows and are indeed the faster-growing trend.
Meanwhile, countries that used to be countries of origin have also become, in a very
compressed period of time, countries of destination and transit.
30. Given these changing dynamics of labour migration, new opportunities – and also
new challenges – have materialized.

43 ibid., p. 312.
44 R. Dobbs et al.: The world at work: Jobs, pay, and skills for 3.5 billion people, McKinsey Global Institute,

Sep. 2012, Executive Summary, p. 2.

45 European Commission: Europe 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, communication
from the Commission, 3 Mar. 2010, p. 18.
46M.A. Clemens: Global Skill Partnerships: A Proposal for Technical Training in a Mobile World, Center for
Global Development, Policy Paper 040, Washington, DC, May 2014, p. 2.
47 International Organisation of Employers (IOE): Position Paper: International Labour Migration, Nov. 2014,
p. 2.
48 ibid., pp. 2–3.

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Chapter 2

Labour migration governance challenges

31. This chapter discusses the principal benefits and costs of labour migration, especially
those borne by less-skilled workers. It draws particular attention to the crucial role national
labour market institutions, active labour market and employment policies, and social
dialogue mechanisms can and should play to protect migrant workers from abuse and
unfair treatment, while also protecting national workers and ensuring that the labour
market needs of countries of destination and employers’ requirements are met. It also
highlights the importance of cooperation across borders.

2.1. Benefits of labour migration and

costs for migrant workers
2.1.1. Benefits of labour migration
32. Labour migration brings benefits to migrant workers and their families. The World
Bank observes that “[m]igrants from the poorest countries, on average, experienced a
15-fold increase in income, a doubling of school enrollment rates, and a 16-fold reduction
in child mortality after moving to a developed country”. 1 Remittances are an important
source of poverty alleviation for migrant households and communities. Migrant remittance
flows were estimated at around US$441 billion to developing countries in 2015, nearly
three times the amount of official development assistance. 2 The top three recipient
countries of remittances were India, China and the Philippines, while as a share of gross
domestic product (GDP) smaller countries such as Tajikistan (42 per cent), Kyrgyzstan
(30 per cent), Nepal (29 per cent), Tonga (28 per cent) and the Republic of Moldova
(26 per cent) were the largest recipients. 3 Remittances can help to reduce child labour and
to finance schooling and health-care costs where they are not fully covered at the national
level.
33. International migration has both direct and indirect effects on economic growth.
Given the age structure of inflows, migration tends to expand the workforce, thereby
contributing to aggregate GDP growth. 4 Working-age immigrants tend to contribute
positively to public finances, provided they are integrated in the labour market. This is
largely due to their relatively young age and thus years of expected contributions and
limited need to draw from education and health services. If migrants are properly
integrated into the labour market, migration can boost the income per capita of recipient

1 World Bank: Migration and Development: A Role for the World Bank Group, Washington, DC, Sep. 2016, p. 15.
2 World Bank: Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016, Washington, DC, 2016, p. v.
3 ibid., pp. v–vi.
4 ILO, OECD and World Bank: The Contribution of Labour Mobility to Economic Growth, op. cit., p. 12.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

economies by increasing the employment-to-population ratio and labour productivity. 5

Labour productivity can also be enhanced through increasing the diversity of skills – skills
complementarity and specialization – and fostering the upskilling of national workers by
providing new opportunities. On their return home, migrants at all skill levels also have
the potential to make a positive contribution to economic development in their countries
of origin through financial investments, as well as human and social capital acquired
abroad, such as new skills, ideas and know-how. 6
34. In most destination countries, migrants pay more in taxes and social contributions
than they receive, thus easing the strain on pension systems in ageing developed societies,
and contribute substantively to destination countries’ economies by providing the labour
and skills needed in critical occupations and sectors, 7 such as agriculture, construction,
domestic work, hospitality, health care, engineering and information technology. The
increasing number of highly educated immigrants has important implications for
productivity, innovation and entrepreneurship. Migrants can also play a role in facilitating
trade and investment flows and in transferring knowledge and technology across borders;
as consumers of goods and services, they also boost internal market demand. 8
35. Studies focusing on high-income destination countries find that migration has only
a limited effect on the average wages and employment of national workers. 9 The fiscal
impact of migration also tends to be small in most countries, although employment is the
single greatest determinant of migrants’ net fiscal contribution, particularly in countries
with generous welfare systems. 10 This contribution depends on migrants’ income and
their labour market integration, and also on the functioning of the social security system
in host economies. 11 Preliminary findings of ILO–OECD research measuring the
economic impact of labour migration in low- and middle-income countries show that,
while the impact may be similar to that in advanced economies, it depends on labour
market structures, adjustments in the broader economy, and the investment environment
(box 2.1).

5 See, for example, International Monetary Fund (IMF): “Spillovers from China’s Transition and from Migration”,
in World Economic Outlook October 2016, Washington, DC, 2016; F. Jaumotte et al.: Impact of Migration on
Income Levels in Advanced Economies, IMF Spillover Notes, Issue 8, Washington, DC, Oct. (revised Dec.) 2016.
6 ILO, OECD and World Bank: The Contribution of Labour Mobility to Economic Growth, op. cit., p. 1.
7 ibid., pp. 1 and 11.
8 ibid., p. 1; World Bank: Migration and Development, op. cit., p. x and pp. 15–26.
9 See OECD, ILO, World Bank and IMF: Towards a Framework for Fair and Effective Integration of Migrants
into the Labour Market, Paper for the G20, forthcoming 2017, p. 9.
10OECD: “The fiscal impact of immigration in OECD countries”, in International Migration Outlook 2013, Paris,
2013, p. 161; OECD: “Is migration good for the economy”, op. cit., p. 3.
11OECD, ILO, World Bank and IMF: Towards a Framework for Fair and Effective Integration of Migrants into
the Labour Market, op. cit., pp. 9–10.

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 Labour migration governance challenges

Box 2.1
ILO–OECD project: Assessing the economic contribution of labour
migration in developing countries as countries of destination
Assessing the economic impact of migration in destination countries, particularly in
developing countries, whose labour markets and other social infrastructures are often not
as well developed as in richer economies, can be a difficult task. Often, short- and
long-term economic impacts of migration are very different. For instance, according to
theory, in the short term, labour markets respond to labour supply shocks either by an
adjustment in employment rates or an adjustment in wages, which, over the long term, will
dissipate as the resident labour force and firms adjust to a new equilibrium. However, even
short-term effects are difficult to isolate empirically. Existing research has shown that
immigration can have both negative and positive impacts on the employment prospects of
national workers, but findings depend heavily on the choice of methodology and on the
time frame which is being examined. Further, most findings on impacts of labour migration
are based on studies in high-income countries with relatively well-developed labour market
structures. These studies show that certain labour market structures, such as
minimum-wage regulations or opportunities for educational advancement, can serve to
temper impacts of labour migration on national labour markets. The existence and quality
of such structures, however, differ greatly among developing countries, and from those in
more developed economies, meaning that there remains much to be studied in terms of
ideal policy mixes for maximizing the benefits of labour migration to developing countries.
The ILO–OECD project employs a range of different methodologies in order to study
the impact of labour migration to developing countries, looking at economic and labour
market impacts, among others. For instance, in the case of Thailand, the project’s research
findings on migration impacts tend to be in line with those of existing research, namely that
there are mild positive effects on the paid employment rate at the national level, but at the
same time there is a high concentration of migrant workers in low-skilled jobs.

2.1.2. Decent work deficits and labour migration costs

36. Despite the benefits of labour migration, migrant workers, especially the less-skilled,
continue to suffer from significant decent work deficits, including violations of
fundamental principles and rights at work and other infringements, when seeking to obtain
employment abroad and during their stay in the country of employment. These can be
categorized generally as “labour migration costs” (figure 2.1; see also Chapter 5).
Low-skilled migrant workers are more likely to be subject to higher labour migration costs
than the highly skilled, who are viewed as a scarce resource and for whom there is
competition among countries. In contrast, the much larger supply of less-skilled workers
in relation to available jobs abroad means that they tend to be recruited under temporary
migration schemes, often after paying fees to labour recruiters, and into sectors
characterized by non-standard forms of employment and greater informality and where
decent work deficits are most prevalent.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Figure 2.1. Typology of labour migration costs in the migration process

Documentation costs
(such as passports, visas) / Transportation costs
recruitment service fees

Costs associated with

the process of return Costs associated with stay
and work at destination
and reintegration

Source: Adapted from M. Aleksynska et al.: Deficiencies in conditions of work as a cost to labour migration:
Concepts, extent and implications, ILO, forthcoming, 2017.

Denial of fundamental principles and rights at work

37. Although they represent only 4.4 per cent of the global workforce, migrant workers
are at much higher risk of being victims of forced labour than other workers. According
to the 2012 ILO global estimate, 44 per cent of all victims of forced labour (9.1 million of
a total 20.9 million) had moved either internally or internationally. 12 Forced labour may
be more prevalent in certain sectors, such as agriculture, domestic work, 13 fishing 14 and
the electronics industry. 15 The conditions under which children in developing countries
migrate render them particularly vulnerable to child labour. Moreover, migrant child
labourers are generally worse off than local child labourers in terms of conditions of work
and access to education and health care. 16 Many child migrants also end up in agriculture

12
ILO: ILO Global Estimate of Forced Labour: Results and methodology, Geneva, 2012, p. 17.
13 ILO: Giving globalization a human face, General Survey on the fundamental Conventions concerning rights at

work in light of the ILO Declaration on Social Justice for a Fair Globalization, 2008, Report of the CEACR, ILC,
101st Session, 2012, Geneva, paras 294–295.
14ILO: Employment practices and working conditions in Thailand’s fishing sector, ILO Country Office for
Thailand, Cambodia and Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 2013.
15 In 2014, a report by the non-governmental organization Verité found that one third of migrant workers in the
electronics industry in Malaysia worked in conditions of forced labour, which led to the Electronics Industry
Citizenship Coalition (EICC), a global non-profit coalition of leading electronics companies dedicated to supply
chain responsibility, piloting a factory worker protection programme in Malaysia. See, respectively, Verité: Forced
Labour in the Production of Electronic Goods in Malaysia: A Comprehensive Study of Scope and Characteristics,
Sep. 2014; and EICC: “Electronics Industry Pilots Factory Worker Protection Program in Malaysia”. However, the
allegations of forced labour against migrant workers are continuing. See K. Hodal and A. Kelly: “Malaysia: forced
labour casts dark shadow over electronics industry”, in The Guardian, 21 Nov. 2016.
16H. van de Glind and A. Kou: “Migrant children in child labour: A vulnerable group in need of attention”, in IOM:
Children on the Move, Geneva, 2013, pp. 28–43, p. 30.

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 Labour migration governance challenges

or services such as domestic work, and some become victims of trafficking in persons and
forced labour, which are among the worst forms of child labour. 17
38. While the majority of countries recognize the right to freedom of association and
collective bargaining for migrant workers, in practice migrant workers experience
restrictions in exercising this right, based on nationality or residence. 18 Low-wage
migrant workers are often denied the right “because of their irregular status or by structural
barriers in legal channels that systematically disempower workers”. 19
39. Migrant workers also suffer from discrimination in employment, including
discrimination on multiple grounds such as race, ethnicity, religion and nationality. 20 The
ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations
(CEACR) has emphasized the importance of taking specific steps to combat xenophobia
and social and cultural stereotypes that contribute to discrimination against migrants,
including in employment and occupation. 21 Migrant workers in an irregular situation are
particularly vulnerable to exploitation and discrimination, especially with respect to
conditions of work and occupational safety and health. 22 They also experience obstacles
to asserting their labour rights because of fears of deportation and other consequences.
This emphasizes the need for improved cooperation in this area among
interior/immigration and labour ministries.
40. Women migrant workers are more likely than men to experience discrimination on
account of their sex, nationality and migrant status, among other prohibited grounds of
discrimination. 23 Migrant women, particularly young migrant domestic workers, are
especially vulnerable to physical and sexual violence in the workplace. 24 Furthermore,
women migrant workers “face a double penalty in terms of labour market segregation and
discrimination; they are more likely to work in less-paid and rewarded sectors of the
economy because of their sex, and are more likely to work in lower-skilled positions in
that sector because of their ethnicity and migrant status”. 25 This is supported by a recent
ILO study, which demonstrates that migrants – especially migrant women – are
over-represented in non-standard employment such as temporary agency work and
part-time jobs, which is also the result of discrimination, poor transferability of skills and
low bargaining power. 26 Sample surveys carried out by the ILO and the World Bank under
the auspices of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development
(KNOMAD) examining migration costs experienced by migrant workers demonstrate that

17ILO International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour: Migration and child labour; ILO Worst Forms
of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182), Art. 3(a).
18ILO: Giving globalization a human face, op. cit., para. 79; ILO: Promoting fair migration, General Survey
concerning the migrant workers instruments, Report of the CEACR, ILC, 105th Session, 2016, Geneva, para. 289.
19 UN: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, General

Assembly, 71st session, A/71/385, 14 Sep. 2016, para. 28.

20ILO: Equality at work: The continuing challenge, Global Report under the follow-up to the ILO Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, Report of the Director-General, Report I(B), ILC, 100th Session, 2011,
Geneva, para. 129.
21 ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., paras 290–292.
22 ILO: Giving globalization a human face, op. cit., para. 778.
23 Cf. ILO: Equality at work: The continuing challenge, op. cit., paras 69–75 and 129.
24 O’Neill et al., op. cit., p. 7 (box 2).
25 ibid., p. 9.
26ILO: Non-standard employment around the world: Understanding challenges, shaping prospects, Geneva, 2016,
pp. 144–152.

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migrant women domestic workers work substantially more hours than other workers. For
example, in the Africa–GCC corridor, some migrant women domestic workers reported
working an average of about 115 hours per week, as compared to 70 hours for migrant
men in the construction sector. 27
41. Certain laws and regulations relating to the employment of workers at all skill levels
can also result in discrimination against migrant workers, such as employment permit
systems and sponsorship systems that severely restrict the possibility for migrant workers
to change workplaces, employers or sponsors, thus placing them in a particularly
vulnerable situation and providing employers with an opportunity to exert
disproportionate power over them. 28 Moreover, such laws and regulations may also
enable employer preferences for migrant workers over national workers, thus facilitating
“social dumping” and a race to the bottom.
42. Limits on internal labour market mobility not only hinder the protection of migrant
workers’ rights, they also result in inefficient labour markets and contribute to high
recruitment costs (see Chapter 5), which are exacerbated by the inability of businesses to
promptly obtain workers with appropriate skills from a local labour pool. Greater internal
labour market mobility could also reduce “labour hoarding” whereby firms hold onto their
workers for as long as possible, and employer practices that are designed to prevent
“absconding”, including withholding wages, confiscating passports and preventing
migrant domestic workers from leaving the house on a day off. 29 In the Bali Declaration,
adopted at the 16th ILO Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting, constituents identified as
one of the priorities for national policy and action the enhancement of labour migration
policies based on relevant international labour standards, including the need to “redress
employer–worker relationships that impede workers’ freedom of movement, their right to
terminate employment or change employers, taking into account any contractual
obligations that may apply, and their right to return freely to their countries of origin”. 30
Wage penalties
43. In addition to gender-based wage penalties, there continue to be significant wage
gaps between migrant workers and nationals in relation to both high- and low-wage
earners, which are only partly explained by differences in experience, education (including
language knowledge), occupation, skill level and other labour market characteristics. The
unexplained part of such wage gaps could be attributed to a number of factors: employer
discrimination against migrants; differences in returns to education acquired abroad; the
misperception that migrants, particularly single migrants, have lower income needs than
national counterparts with families to support; or under-representation or a lack of

27M. Aleksynska et al.: Deficiencies in conditions of work as a cost to labour migration: Concepts, extent and
implications, ILO, forthcoming, 2017.
28 ILO: Giving globalization a human face, op. cit., para. 779.
29 ILO: Employer–migrant worker relationships in the Middle East: Exploring scope for internal labour market
mobility and fair migration, ILO Regional Office for the Arab States, White Paper, forthcoming 2017. With regard
to the kafala system specifically, proposals for reform include: (a) delinking the employer–worker relationship
from the immigration status of the migrant worker; (b) ensuring that the employment relationship is governed by
standardized employment contracts grounded in labour law; (c) spelling out contract termination conditions in
standardized contracts; and (d) respecting basic labour rights in all cases. See ILO: Realizing a Fair Migration
Agenda: Labour Flows between Asia and Arab States – Summary Report of the Interregional Experts’ Meeting,
3–4 December 2014, Kathmandu, RO–Arab States and RO–Asia and the Pacific, 2015, p. 10.
30ILO: Bali Declaration, adopted at the 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on
9 December 2016, para. 8(e).

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representation through collective representation structures. 31 In Europe, there is an overall

wage gap of 17.5 per cent between nationals and migrants, of which 11.3 per cent is
unexplained and may be due to discrimination. In Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Portugal and
Spain, the wage gap between migrants and nationals is above 25 per cent, with unexplained
wage gaps of 17 per cent and over in Cyprus, Denmark, Poland and the Netherlands. 32 In
some countries, such as Argentina and Germany, the wage gap between migrant and
national high-wage earners is wholly unexplained. 33 These findings show that further
investigation is warranted into the effectiveness of policies supporting the labour market
integration of migrants, which are considered in section 2.2 below. The explained wage
gaps, however, would be expected to decline for those migrants with longer residency,
since, with time, they are more likely to acquire the necessary education, diplomas and
language skills and to establish social networks.
Poor conditions of work
44. The ILO–KNOMAD surveys show that working conditions such as contractual
status, level of wages, periodicity of wage payments, hours worked and occupational
safety and health issues as well as trade union participation and equality of treatment are
all areas in which migrant workers report substantial decent work deficits. In monetary
terms, the aggregate losses represent at least 30 per cent of the total wage promised to
migrants prior to their departure and 27 per cent of the actual wage. 34
45. Migrant workers are often disproportionately affected by occupational injuries
compared to the non-migrant population. The CEACR has repeatedly noted that, in a range
of countries, migrant workers in dangerous sectors such as construction may not be
provided with sufficient training, protective equipment, medical supervision and insurance
in case of an occupational accident. 35 For example, according to data from the Foreign
Employment Promotion Board of the Government of Nepal, a total of 4,322 Nepalese
migrant workers died across 24 destination countries between 2008–09 and 2014–15, of
whom 4,235 were men and 85 were women. 36 This amounted to an increase from
90 deaths in the year 2008–09 (when almost 220,000 labour permits were granted) to a
total of 1,004 deaths in 2014–15 (when nearly half a million labour permits were
granted). 37 While the death rate of Nepalese migrant workers abroad is similar to that of
workers of the same age group in Nepal, migrant workers have to undergo a medical test
before their labour permits are approved and should therefore be generally healthier and
fitter than the average population. 38

31 ILO: Global Wage Report 2014/15: Wages and income inequality, Geneva, 2015, pp. v and 50–52.
32 ibid., pp. 52–53 (and figure 40).
33ibid., p. 52. One exception to this pattern is Brazil, where high-wage migrants earn more than high-wage nationals
for both explained and unexplained reasons.
34 Aleksynska et al., op. cit.
35
See, for example, the comments adopted by the CEACR with regard to the Safety and Health in Construction
Convention, 1988 (No. 167): China, observation 2013, Brazil, observation 2012; Dominican Republic,
observation 2012 and direct request 2014; Norway, observation 2015; and Serbia, direct request 2016.
36ILO: When the safety of Nepali migrant workers fails: A review of data on the numbers and causes of the death
of Nepali migrant workers, ILO Kathmandu, 2016, p. 9. According to the report, the sex of two migrant workers
for the year 2014–15 was not specified. Equivalent data (but citing only figures for 2013–14) was also provided by
the Government of Nepal to the CEACR. See ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., para. 48.
37 ibid., p. 9 (table 1).
38 ibid., p. 10.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

46. The ILO–KNOMAD surveys also found that payments for sick days, including for
job-related illness or injury, varied widely. Approximately 30 per cent of migrant workers
interviewed reported that they had been sick or injured during their stay abroad, and two
out of five of those workers said that they had not been paid for the days when they were
unable to work because of sickness or injury. The highest proportion of non-remunerated
migrants was observed in the South Asia–GCC corridor, with male construction workers
most affected (figure 2.2). 39

Figure 2.2. Percentage of migrants not paid for the days that they were
unable to work because of injury or illness

100
90
80
70
60
Percentage

50
40
30
20
10
0
Female Male Male Male Male Male Female
Ethiopia– Nepal–Qatar Pakistan– Pakistan– Philippines– Viet Nam– Viet Nam–
Saudia Saudi Arabia United Arab Qatar Malaysia Malaysia
Arabia Emirates
Construction Industry Household services Agriculture and services
Source: Aleksynska et al., op. cit.

47. Many migrants also experience indecent living conditions in overcrowded housing,
which can lack basic infrastructure and services, such as sanitation, electricity and potable
water. 40
Skills mismatch
48. Access to skills recognition processes, especially for low- and medium-skilled
migrant workers, is often very limited. Poor skills matching or the non-recognition of
qualifications can result in deskilling or “brain waste”, which is another specific cost of
labour migration. 41 Migrants encounter difficulties in translating their experiences from
destination countries into better human resources development opportunities on their

39 Aleksynska et al., op. cit.

40 UN: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, François Crépeau: Labour exploitation
of migrants, Human Rights Council, 26th session, A/HRC/26/35, 3 Apr. 2014, para. 43.
41 R. Cholewinski and M.-J. Tayah: Promoting decent work for migrant workers, ILO discussion paper, Feb. 2015,
p. 7.

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 Labour migration governance challenges

return. A 2014 ILO study found poor skills matching across all workers in at least half of
the European countries assessed. For example, between 25 and 45 per cent of workers in
Europe are either over- or under-qualified for their job, leading to a substantial mismatch
between supply and demand in the region’s labour markets 42 and a reduction in business
productivity. This trend is likely to become even more pronounced for migrant workers in
sectors of the economy highly dependent on them, such as domestic work, other parts of
the service industry and construction. Those sectors may experience “social dumping”,
particularly in wages, and increased labour market segmentation, with low-skilled and
low-paid jobs becoming the exclusive domain of migrants. 43
49. As low- to medium-skilled workers often lack formal qualifications, there is a need
for systems that allow their skills to be readily assessed. A good example of such a system
is reflected in the EU Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation
of non-formal and informal learning. 44 Recognition of the prior learning and skills and
competencies of migrant workers allows them to access better employment opportunities
while reducing the risk of deskilling. The ILO is developing a users’ guide covering low-
and medium-skilled workers for this purpose. 45 Skills recognition will also help to
improve the development potential of countries of origin, allowing returnees to
successfully reintegrate into the domestic labour market.
50. Work on improving skills identification and matching should be combined with
broader efforts to enhance coherence among employment, skills and migration policies,
with the active participation of government institutions and the social partners. These
coordinated efforts will also result in improved information exchange between the
education system and the labour market, thus providing the basis for up-to-date skills
information and forecasting.
Lack of social protection
51. Migrant workers face significant challenges in accessing social protection, including
health care and other social security benefits. Although “everyone, as a member of society,
has the right to social security”, 46 migrants experience considerable difficulties in
exercising this right, as compared to nationals working their entire lives in one country.
Migrants may be denied access or have limited access to social security coverage in their
host country because of their nationality, status or insufficient periods of employment and
residence, 47 which can also amount to direct or indirect discrimination, particularly in the
context of temporary or seasonal labour migration. Their access may also be curtailed due
to a lack of awareness of their rights and obligations. At the same time, they can lose
entitlements to social security benefits in their country of origin because of their temporary
absence. The principles of territoriality and nationality are inherent and problematic

42 ILO: Skills mismatch in Europe: Statistics brief, Geneva, 2014, p. 12.

43 G. Lemaître: “The demography of occupational change and skill use among immigrants and the native-born”, in

OECD: Matching Economic Migration with Labour Market Needs, Paris, 2014, p. 113.
44
Council of the European Union: Council Recommendation of 20 December 2012 on the validation of non-formal
and informal learning (2012/C 398/01).
45 ILO: Users’ guide and facilitators’ notes on “Facilitating transitions to decent work: The importance of
recognizing prior learning of migrant workers”, forthcoming, 2017.
46UN: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, General Assembly, resolution 217A, 10 Dec. 1948, Arts 22 and 25;
see also UN: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Assembly, resolution
2200A (XXI), 16 Dec. 1966, Art. 9.
47 G. Binette et al.: Migrant access to social protection under selected bilateral labour arrangements, ILO,
forthcoming, 2017, p. 10.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

features of the national legislation of many countries. In addition, the lack of coordination
mechanisms between countries, as discussed in Chapters 3 and 4, can prevent migrants
from obtaining coverage under social security schemes. Moreover, where bilateral and
multilateral social security agreements exist, they mostly cover formal workers, leaving
migrant workers in the informal economy unprotected.
52. In some parts of the world, and particularly in the South Asia–Arab States migration
corridor, 48 migrant workers are required to undergo mandatory medical tests, including
HIV and pregnancy testing as a condition to enter or remain in the destination country.
Mandatory HIV testing or disclosure of HIV status for employment purposes is prohibited
under the ILO HIV and AIDS Recommendation, 2010 (No. 200). 49 Requiring a test for
pregnancy or a certificate of such a test when a woman is applying for employment is
prohibited under the ILO Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183). 50
Furthermore, studies show that many migrants, especially women migrant workers, are
discriminated against in health-care settings and lack access to maternity protection and
other measures to support their family responsibilities. 51

2.2. Role of labour market institutions and

active labour market policies
53. Preventing exploitation of migrant workers and ensuring their positive contribution
to host and home societies requires fair and effective labour migration governance at all
levels, and national labour market institutions have an important role to play. The
governance system is most effective when public employment services, labour ministries,
business, and employers’ and workers’ organizations are strong and all stakeholders have
the capacity to contribute to national dialogue. This itself can improve public trust and
support for labour migration policies.
54. Migrant workers are best protected in law and practice when they are covered by
labour market institutions – such as inclusion in collective bargaining, minimum wages,
social security provision and employment protection legislation – on an equal footing with
national workers. 52 Globally, there are examples where national labour laws exclude
certain sectors from coverage, such as agriculture and domestic work, 53 with a
disproportionate impact on the large numbers of migrant workers in those sectors (many
of whom are working in the informal economy). There are also examples where

48Joint United Nations Initiative on Migration, Health and HIV in Asia: Three Country Assessment on Health
Screening of Migrant Workers and its Impact on Right to Health and Right to Work, 2014.
49 Paras 25, 27–28.
50
Art. 9.
51ILO: “Meeting the needs of my family too”: Maternity protection and work–family measures for domestic
workers, Domestic Work Policy Brief No. 6, Geneva, 2013, p. 6; M. Bandyopadhyay and J. Thomas: “Women
migrant workers’ vulnerability to HIV infection in Hong Kong”, in AIDS Care, Aug. 2002, Vol. 14(4),
pp. 509–521.
52C. Kuptsch: “Inequalities and the impact of labour market institutions on migrant workers”, in J. Berg (ed.):
Labour Markets, Institutions and Inequality: Building Just Societies in the 21st Century, Edward Elgar and ILO,
Cheltenham, UK, and Geneva, 2015, pp. 340–360.
53 ibid., pp. 352–353.

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 Labour migration governance challenges

minimum-wage legislation does not apply to migrant workers or certain sectors, or sets a
lower rate for migrant workers. 54
55. An important consideration is the formulation and implementation of coherent active
labour market policies that are aligned with migration policies with regard to strengthening
the role of public employment services, assessing actual and future skills needs, and
vocational training and education. The adaptation of public employment services to
provide more inclusive services and support to newly arrived migrants is one factor that
could assist in their integration into the labour market and upward mobility. 55 Public
employment services can also contribute to fair recruitment of migrant workers and reduce
the costs of labour migration (see Chapter 5). Other labour market institutions, such as
labour market observatories, can play an important role in collecting, processing and
analysing labour migration data. In a number of destination countries, such as Australia
and New Zealand, skills assessment and forecasting information is used to create skills
shortage lists that provide a fast track for the admission of migrant workers with skills that
are in high demand. 56 These examples also highlight good collaboration between different
ministries (such as education and labour) and with social partners. 57

2.2.1. Labour inspection and access to justice

56. Labour inspection services and grievance mechanisms are crucial. Labour inspection
systems that conduct regular inspections, provide guidance and advice to both employers
and workers, including migrant workers, and ensure effective enforcement in cases of
non-compliance have a key role to play in reducing decent work deficits. The CEACR has
drawn specific attention to the particularly vulnerable situation of migrant workers in an
irregular situation, who may be unwilling to cooperate with labour inspection services
where they fear negative consequences, such as losing their job or expulsion from the
country. In this context, the CEACR has underscored that the main objective of the labour
inspection system is to protect the rights and interests of all workers, and to improve their
working conditions, rather than to enforce immigration law, and therefore any cooperation
between the labour inspectorate and immigration authorities should be carried out
cautiously. 58
57. Migrant workers need to be able to file grievances with the ministry of labour, for
example to recoup unpaid wages owed and recruitment fees paid, without fear of
intimidation or retaliation and with the assurance that proactive measures will be taken to
make inquiries and verify allegations through credible investigation. In this regard, they
should receive information on their rights and how to access and navigate grievance and
dispute settlement procedures, and should be offered free or affordable legal assistance
and adequate language translation services. To ensure that access to justice is real and
effective, migrant workers with an insecure immigration status should be able to remain
in the country on a valid visa until their claims have been resolved. Moreover, if the
employer is found to be at fault, the workers concerned have the right to reinstatement and

54 ILO: Labour protection in a transforming world of work: A recurrent discussion on the strategic objective of

social protection (labour protection), Report VI, ILC, 104th Session, 2015, Geneva, para. 115; Kuptsch, op. cit.,
pp. 348–349.
55M. Benton et al.: Aiming Higher: Policies to Get Immigrants into Middle-Skilled Work in Europe, Migration
Policy Institute and International Labour Office, Washington, DC, Nov. 2014.
56 OECD: Getting Skills Right: Assessing and Anticipating Changing Skills Needs, Paris, 2016, p. 61.
57 ibid., pp. 74–75. The questionnaire supporting this research, however, revealed that the lack of consultation with
stakeholders in identifying skill needs is still considered a barrier by 75 per cent of social partners (ibid., p. 67).
58 ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., para. 482.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

back pay and to seek other positions within the same sector in which they were previously
employed, or within the labour market more broadly. 59

2.3. Social dialogue

58. Social dialogue lies at the heart of the ILO’s mandate and is seen as key to “the
development of rights-based, transparent and coherent labour migration legislation and
policies, taking account of labour market needs”. 60 In its 2016 General Survey, the
CEACR emphasized the “pivotal role” played by social partners in effective labour
migration governance, including in “the development, implementation and ongoing
adaptation of legislation and policy in relation to the regulation of labour migration and
promotion of equality of opportunity and treatment for migrant workers”. 61 The CEACR
provided examples where employers’ and workers’ organizations are engaged in national
tripartite forums, governmental bodies and advisory committees on labour migration, and
participate in specific consultation procedures and mechanisms addressing such matters
as legislative and policy reform concerning migration, integration of migrant workers and
unauthorized employment of foreign nationals. 62
59. However, policies around migration in many countries, including those focusing on
labour migration, are largely the domain of ministries of the interior, immigration or
foreign affairs, which focus more generally on the criteria for admission of foreigners and
related security issues but have less of a culture of regular and systematic engagement with
social partners and other non-governmental actors. Despite the clear stake of business in
migration policy, 63 a 2016 survey of migration and mobility professionals from over
210 global organizations across all regions and representing a wide range of industries
found that only 27 per cent of respondent organizations participate in public policy debates,
while a mere 17 per cent reported that they had been able to influence national migration
policies. 64
60. Institutionalized social dialogue on migration therefore remains the exception rather
than the rule. Bridging this policy lacuna requires a much greater involvement of labour
ministries in the design, implementation and monitoring and evaluation of policies relating
to labour migration; the establishment of coherent whole-of-government approaches to
migration which bring together all relevant parts of government, workers’ and employers’
organizations and other non-governmental actors; and a recognition that collaboration
with social partners can bring legitimacy to the labour migration policies adopted and
counteract negative perceptions by building public trust and support for such policies.

59 ILO: Employer–migrant worker relationships in the Middle East, op. cit.

60 ILO: Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration, Geneva, 4–8 November 2013, Conclusions, para. 8. See
also: ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding principles and guidelines for a rights-based
approach to labour migration, Geneva, 2006, p. 13, Principle 6: “Social dialogue is essential to the development
of sound labour migration policy and should be promoted and implemented”.
61 ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., paras 131 and 189, respectively.
62 ibid., paras 133–136.
63 IOE: Position Paper, op. cit., p. 2.
64A.T. Fragomen, Jr.: The Business Case for Migration: The GFMD Business Mechanism’s Position Paper and
Recommendations for Presentation at the Ninth GFMD Summit, Bangladesh, Dec. 2016, pp. 3 and 21.

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 Labour migration governance challenges

2.4. International cooperation

61. While governments are responsible under international law for the protection of
everyone within their jurisdiction, including migrant workers, no country can effectively
govern migration alone. International cooperation is therefore essential. This is recognized
in ILO standards and policy frameworks and has been underscored in global migration
discussions (box 2.2).

Box 2.2
The importance of international cooperation on migration
In addition to specific provisions relating to cooperation at the bilateral level (see
Chapter 3), the Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97), and the
Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143), and their
accompanying Recommendations contain provisions emphasizing the importance of
international cooperation, for example with regard to preventing misleading propaganda,
establishing public employment services, addressing irregular migration and providing
social security. 1 The 2006 Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration supports, where
appropriate, the promotion of “bilateral and multilateral agreements between destination
and origin countries addressing different aspects of labour migration, such as admission
procedures, flows, family reunification possibilities, integration policy and return, including
in particular gender-specific trends”. 2
The New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, adopted by the UN General
Assembly in September 2016, reiterated the need for improved cooperation on migration
at all levels. Member States committed to “build on existing bilateral, regional and global
cooperation and partnership mechanisms, in accordance with international law, for
facilitating migration in line with the 2030 Agenda”, and recognized the importance of such
cooperation in ensuring safe, regular and orderly migration and the protection of the
human rights of migrants. 3
Notes: 1 Convention No. 97, Arts 3 and 7; Convention No. 143, Part I; Recommendation No. 151,
Para. 34(1)(c)(ii). 2 ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, op. cit., p. 7, Guideline 2.3. 3 New York
Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, op. cit., para. 54 and Annex II, para. 5.

62. Despite this call for improved cooperation on international migration, political,
economic and labour market conditions at the national level can have an adverse impact
on its effectiveness. Political and economic pressures in many low-income countries to
send nationals abroad for employment can stimulate unhealthy competition among origin
countries, resulting in the acceptance of lower levels of treatment for migrant workers at
destination. Moreover, bilateral and multilateral cooperation on labour migration among
high- and middle-income destination countries and low-income origin countries rarely
takes place on an equal footing, given that the former hold most of the bargaining power
regarding access to their labour markets. Even where there are evident labour market needs
for migrant workers, restrictive migration policies, based more on public misperceptions
and xenophobia than actual evidence, create an environment that is hardly conducive to
good cooperation on migration. Finally, international cooperation does not always involve
the most appropriate government actors, with foreign and interior ministries often taking
up labour issues, and there is no or limited space for social partners, particularly in
intergovernmental forums such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development and
regional consultative processes (see Chapter 4).
63. International cooperation at the bilateral and regional levels regarding the whole
spectrum of labour migration governance issues discussed above is specifically addressed
in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 5 focuses on a unique and pressing governance challenge,
namely how to ensure fair recruitment, which requires multifaceted action by a range of
actors at various levels and their cooperation across migration corridors. Cooperation on

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

migration, including labour migration, is also the focus of inter-agency efforts under the
auspices of the Global Migration Group (box 2.3).

Box 2.3
Global Migration Group
The Global Migration Group, an inter-agency group comprising 21 UN entities and
meeting at the level of heads of agencies, was established by the UN Secretary-General
after the first UN General Assembly High-level Dialogue on International Migration and
Development in 2006. Its aim is to promote the wider application of all relevant
international and regional instruments and norms relating to migration, and to encourage
the adoption of more coherent, comprehensive and better coordinated approaches to
international migration.
The Group facilitates inter-agency collaboration, including in developing joint tools
and guidance on such issues as national development planning (UN Development
Assistance Framework guidance), irregular migration and crisis response. It works across
a spectrum of international migration issues through its five working groups and task forces
on: data and research; mainstreaming migration into national development strategies;
migration, human rights and gender equality; capacity development; and migration and
decent work. This last task force is co-chaired by the ILO and IOM, and has begun work
on fair recruitment. The ILO chaired the Global Migration Group in 2014; the current chair
is the United Nations University.
The Global Migration Group has been mandated by the General Assembly to provide
inputs to the thematic consultations on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration (box 0.1).
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International Migration will
play a key role in coordinating the UN system follow-up to the New York Declaration and
inputs to the Global Compact, working closely with the Global Migration Group and
fostering closer collaboration between it and the Global Forum on Migration and
Development, which will also contribute substantively to the Global Compacts. The ILO
has provided technical support to the Global Forum, at which ILO constituents can share
standards, practices, tools and guidance with member States and other stakeholders. As
labour mobility is gaining increasing importance in the Forum, the ILO constituents could
play a larger role in contributing to the issues and dialogue it addresses.
Sources: http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/; Modalities for the intergovernmental negotiations of the Global
Migration Compact, op. cit., para. 15.

2.5. Conclusion
64. Labour migration brings benefits to migrants and their families, as well as to origin
and destination countries. However, it also incurs costs, particularly for low-skilled
migrant workers. Indeed, low-skilled migration is essentially of a temporary nature. While
temporary and circular labour migration schemes are viewed as a flexible means of filling
short-term labour and skills gaps, careful consideration needs to be given to their
formulation, implementation and monitoring, in collaboration with ministries of labour
and workers’ and employers’ organizations, to ensure that they fulfil the specific purpose
for which they were designed, are not used to fill long-term or permanent jobs, and that
workers who migrate under such schemes are not unfairly disadvantaged in terms of
equality of treatment in respect of trade union rights, wages, working conditions and social
protection. 65

65ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO agenda, op. cit., paras 76–78; J. Fudge and F. MacPhail: “The Temporary
Foreign Worker Program in Canada: Low-Skilled Workers as an Extreme Form of Flexible Labor”, in Comparative
Labor Law and Policy Journal, Vol. 31, 2009, pp. 101–139; P. Wickramasekara: Circular Migration: A Triple Win

28 ILC.106/IV
 Labour migration governance challenges

65. In order to harness the benefits and reduce the costs, good governance of labour
migration is critical. As ILO constituents agreed at the last general discussion on labour
migration at the International Labour Conference in 2004, this governance needs to be
rights-based, addressing the decent work deficits and costs that are mainly experienced by
less-skilled workers. But it also needs to address labour market needs for migrant workers.
The right policy mix lies in ensuring that labour market institutions and active labour
market policies devote sufficient attention to migrant workers and labour migration, and
in institutionalizing the role for social dialogue in designing and implementing policies
relating to labour migration, increasing coordination between immigration/interior and
labour ministries to ensure that migrant workers are not penalized when they assert their
labour rights, and developing more relevant and inclusive international cooperation on
migration. Deepening the ILO’s coordination and collaboration with other UN agencies
and stakeholders, including in the Global Migration Group and the Global Forum on
Migration and Development, may be important to ensuring broader understanding and
engagement of ILO standards, tools and guidance at the global and field levels.

or a Dead End, Global Union Research Network Discussion Paper No. 15, ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities
(ACTRAV), Geneva, 2011, p. 90.

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Chapter 3

Bilateral agreements on labour migration

66. Bilateral labour migration agreements have seen a revival since the 1990s. 1 They
have evolved in essentially two distinct stages. The “first generation” made its mark in
Europe in the late 1940s and focused mainly on labour recruitment for reconstruction of
post-war European economies, and includes attention to refugees and forcibly displaced
persons affected by the war. However, the oil crisis and recession in Europe in the 1970s
put a stop to labour migration flows, including those taking place under bilateral
agreements. The post-1990 period has seen a resurgence of a “second generation” bilateral
labour migration agreements across the world, including in new countries of origin and
destination, with a peak observed between 2005 and 2009. The subsequent global
economic crisis has resulted in a decline in the conclusion of new bilateral agreements
since 2010. 2 Interest is especially evident in certain migration corridors (such as Asia and
Africa to the Arab States, and within Asia), in response to the continuing economic growth
and demand for migrant workers in the destination countries concerned, which reflects a
desire to facilitate new labour migration flows and also to regulate existing flows. As a
result, demand for ILO technical assistance in this area has also grown. Given these
developments, the conclusions of the 2013 Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour
Migration recommended the creation of an ILO online repository on bilateral labour
migration agreements and related good practices. 3 The Office mapped a large number of
them in preparation for a 2015 study, which forms the basis of this chapter. 4
67. While bilateral agreements can play an important role in ensuring that the labour
rights of migrant workers are protected, in practice they exhibit a number of shortcomings
regarding their design, content, monitoring, implementation and impact. This chapter
examines recent trends and the major challenges relating to both their content and
implementation. It discusses the underlying obstacles, points to some promising
experiences, including from ILO development cooperation work, and draws conclusions
on ways to enhance the effectiveness of these policy instruments.

1OECD: Migration for employment: bilateral agreements at a crossroads, Paris, 2004; ILO: Labour migration,
Governing Body, 316th Session, November 2012, GB.316/POL/1, para. 6.
2ILO–KNOMAD: Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on Migration of Low Skilled Workers:
A Review, Research Brief, 2015, pp. 1–2.
3ILO: Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration, Geneva, 4–8 November 2013: Conclusions, para. 9(ii)
and (iii).
4P. Wickramasekara: Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on Migration of Low Skilled
Workers: A Review, Geneva, July 2015.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

3.1. Typology of and trends in bilateral

labour migration agreements
68. In this chapter, “bilateral labour migration agreement” is used generically to apply
to bilateral agreements which create legally binding rights and obligations governed by
international law and are usually more specific and action-oriented, non-binding
memoranda of understanding (MoUs) which set out a broad framework of cooperation to
address common concerns, as well as to other arrangements, including between specific
government ministries or agencies in destination and origin countries. 5 Broader
framework agreements or cooperation agreements that include labour migration along
with other migration topics such as irregular migration, readmission, and migration and
development are also included in this typology. About 70–80 per cent of bilateral labour
migration agreements in Africa, Europe and the Americas are legally binding agreements,
while almost 70 per cent of those in Asia are MoUs (table 3.1).

Table 3.1. Bilateral labour migration agreement types by region (percentage)

Type Asia* Africa Europe and Americas Total

Memorandum of understanding 69.2 3.1 3.7 31.8
Memorandum of agreement 1.5 0.0 3.7 2.0
Bilateral agreement 15.4 71.9 79.6 50.3
Inter-agency understanding 9.2 0.0 0.0 4.0
Framework agreement 0.0 21.9 1.9 5.3
Protocol 4.6 3.1 11.1 6.6
Total 100 100 100 100
Note: Based on 144 mapped and seven unmapped agreements in Europe and the Americas. * Includes GCC countries.
Source: P. Wickramasekara: Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on Migration of Low Skilled Workers: A Review,
Geneva, July 2015, p. 21.

69. The preference for MoUs in Asia can be explained by a number of factors in
destination countries in the GCC, East Asia and South-East Asia, including the fact that
they are easier to negotiate and implement than more complex legally binding agreements
and that they can be adapted more easily to changing economic and labour market
conditions. 6

3.2. Bilateral labour migration agreements

in an international context
70. In its 2016 General Survey, the CEACR highlighted that bilateral agreements can
play an important role in ensuring that migrant workers at all skill levels benefit from the
protections contained in Conventions Nos 97 and 143. 7 Convention No. 97 requires
Members’ competent authorities, whenever necessary or desirable, to conclude
agreements for the purpose of regulating matters of common concern “in cases where the

5See ILO: Promoting fair migration, General Survey concerning the migrant workers instruments, Report of the
CEACR, ILC, 105th Session, Geneva, 2016, para. 155, footnote 59, referring to an MoU between the Indonesian
National Board for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers and the Japan International
Corporation of Welfare Services, and to an MoU between the Spanish and Portuguese labour inspectorates.
6 Wickramasekara, op cit., p. 21.
7
ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., para. 163.

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 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

number of migrants going from the territory of one Member to that of another is
sufficiently large”. 8 The accompanying Migration for Employment Recommendation
(Revised), 1949 (No. 86), contains a model agreement which applies to both temporary
and permanent migration for employment, including the migration of refugees and
displaced persons. ILO member States, including those that have not ratified the ILO
migrant worker instruments, have widely used the model as a blueprint for concluding
their own arrangements. 9 Using the model agreement as a basis, a range of key elements
for comprehensive provisions can be identified (box 3.1).

Box 3.1
Key elements of a bilateral labour migration agreement
Pre-departure and recruitment
 notification of job opportunities and skills needs;
 pre-selection and final selection of candidates;
 recruitment process;
 medical examination;
 entry visas;
 residence and work permits;
 outgoing transportation and conditions of transport;
Employment and residence at destination
 equality of treatment;
 contracts of employment;
 terms of employment, including possibility to change employment;
 working conditions, including occupational safety and health;
 trade union rights;
 social security;*
 taxation, including measures addressing double taxation;*
 supply of food;
 accommodation;
 family reunification;
 education and vocational training;
 skills recognition;
 activities of social and religious associations;
 supervision of living and working conditions, including through labour inspection;
 transfer of remittances;
 access to dispute settlement procedures and courts, and effective remedies;
Return and reintegration
 conditions of return;
 return transportation and conditions of transport;
 reintegration into the labour market;
Cooperation
 identification of the competent government authorities in both countries of origin and
destination;
 exchange of information between the competent authorities;
 agreement on applicable law and place of jurisdiction;

8 Convention No. 97, Art. 10.

9ILO: Towards a fair deal for migrant workers in the global economy, Report VI, ILC, 92nd Session, 2004,
Geneva, para. 427.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Implementation, monitoring and follow-up

 establishment of a joint commission/committee to:
– monitor the implementation of the agreement, including resolution of disputes
between the parties,
– propose amendments, and
– discuss follow-up.
* In practice, social security and double-taxation issues are often regulated separately, although inclusion of the
reference to both in this context highlights their particular importance for migrant workers and members of their
families.
Source: Adapted from R. Cholewinski: “Evaluating Bilateral Migration Agreements in the Light of Human and
Labour Rights”, in M. Panizzon et al. (eds): The Palgrave Handbook of International Labour Migration: Law and
Policy Perspectives, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2015, pp. 231–252, p. 242.

71. ILO standards also refer to bilateral agreements in the context of the regulation of
recruitment. For example, the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181),
contains a requirement that where recruitment is international, member States should
consider concluding bilateral agreements to prevent abuses and fraudulent practices. 10
72. The ILO Fair Migration Agenda observes that the analysis of bilateral agreements
should be the basis for increased cooperation among member States to promote fair
migration practices, with particular reference to the design of schemes for the temporary
movement of workers or for the movement of workers with specific skills. 11 The ILO
Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration provides guidance on how to use bilateral
agreements to cover important areas of labour migration, such as “developing the
exchange of labour market information”; “establishing policies and procedures [where
appropriate] to facilitate the movement of migrant workers”; and providing “social
security coverage and benefits [to migrant workers], as well as portability of social security
entitlements”. 12

3.3. Governance challenges

73. Despite their potential, the effectiveness of bilateral labour migration agreements has
been challenged. The different bargaining positions of countries of origin relative to
destination countries in negotiating agreements may create pressures on the former to
accept lower standards or not to discuss or elaborate certain key issues. 13 This can be
exacerbated by tensions, particularly in origin countries, between their desire, on the one
hand, to secure jobs for their nationals abroad and reduce high unemployment and informal
employment at home, and their responsibilities, on the other, to protect their nationals
working in destination countries. The diversity of bilateral agreements in terms of their
legally binding status, scope and content presents a further challenge for their effective
implementation, monitoring and follow-up. Moreover, countries of origin and destination
often have different motivations and objectives for negotiating them. That is why it is
important for the principles governing the cooperation to be clearly outlined in the
agreement. This is a good practice of the inter-agency understandings concluded between

10 Convention No. 181, Art. 8(2). See also Convention No. 97, Annexes I and II, Art. 3(3) (in both).
11ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO agenda, Report of the Director-General, Report I(B), ILC, 103rd Session,
2014, Geneva, paras 119–120.
12 ILO: ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding principles and guidelines for a

rights-based approach to labour migration, Geneva, 2006, Guidelines 3.4, 5.3 and 9.9.
13R. Cholewinski: “Evaluating Bilateral Migration Agreements in the Light of Human and Labour Rights”, in
M. Panizzon et al. (eds): The Palgrave Handbook of International Labour Migration: Law and Policy Perspectives,
Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, 2015, p. 237.

34 ILC.106/IV
 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

New Zealand and the Pacific Forum countries in support of New Zealand’s Recognized
Seasonal Employer Policy enabling the horticulture and viticulture industry to recruit
low-skilled workers from the Pacific Islands. For example, the inter-agency understanding
with Kiribati is underpinned by the principles of equity of access and opportunity,
transparency of processes and decision-making, accountability, development focus, and
mitigation of risk. 14
74. While the first generation of bilateral agreements were concluded during a period
where labour migration, including recruitment, was mainly organized by governments, 15
the second generation operate in a context where recruitment of migrant workers in certain
major migration corridors is largely undertaken by private enterprises (see Chapter 5).
While most bilateral agreements today apply to many forms of labour migration
irrespective of how the recruitment takes place, a notable exception concerns those
concluded by the Republic of Korea with the countries deploying workers under the
Korean Employment Permit System, which only envisage the involvement of the
respective countries’ public employment services. 16 As discussed in Chapter 5, this
practice has contributed to a substantial reduction in recruitment costs for the migrant
workers concerned. Therefore, the extent to which bilateral agreements can contribute to
addressing abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices should be an important measure
of their success.
75. Bilateral labour migration agreements also need to be aligned to coherent national
employment policies. Key components of such policies relevant to labour migration
include the creation of more employment opportunities, with due consideration to national
education, skills and training needs; establishment of better conditions of work in origin
countries with a view to reducing the need to migrate for employment; 17 collaboration
with anti-discrimination and labour market integration processes and institutions in
countries of destination; and transition of migrant workers from the informal to the formal
economy. 18 Particular attention also needs to be given to the underlying drivers and
processes of migration, including recruitment (as discussed in Chapter 5), skills needs at
destination, the treatment and labour market integration of incoming migrants, and the
labour market reintegration of returning nationals. 19
76. In addition to these governance challenges, the effectiveness in practice of bilateral
agreements depends on how accessible their contents are to migrants, the existence of

14
See, for example, the inter-agency understanding between the Department of Labour of New Zealand and the
Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Department of Kiribati in support of New Zealand’s Recognized Seasonal
Employer Policy, item 4.1.
15 Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 17.
16Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Labor and Employment, Republic of the Philippines
and the Ministry of Labor, Republic of Korea on the Sending and Receiving of Workers under the Employment
Permit System of Korea, 30 May 2009.
17
ILO Employment Policy (Supplementary Provisions) Recommendation, 1984 (No. 169), Part X (International
Migration and Employment), Para. 39.
18The ILO Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204), includes as
one of its guiding principles the need for Members to pay special attention to those persons, including migrants and
domestic workers, “who are especially vulnerable to the most serious decent work deficits in the informal
economy”, Para. 7(i).
19ILO Recommendation No. 169, Paras 41–43. In this regard, the Mauritius National Employment Policy being
developed in collaboration with the ILO includes a section on labour migration containing strategies on inward
and outward labour migration as well as the mobilization of the Mauritian diaspora abroad. Ministry of Labour,
Industrial Relations and Employment of the Republic of Mauritius: National Employment Policy for Mauritius
(Fourth Draft), Sep. 2014.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

adequate monitoring of their implementation, access to enforcement mechanisms, and

provision of social dialogue. 20 Agreements should also refrain from weakening protection
in international standards and national laws, in particular fundamental principles and rights
at work. 21 In this regard, the ILC Committee on the Application of Standards (CAS), in
discussing the 2016 General Survey, proposed that the Office “undertak[e] further analysis
of the compatibility of … bilateral arrangements with … international labour standards”. 22
Indeed, the effectiveness of bilateral agreements depends heavily on how well developed
national migration governance systems are in both sets of countries and the extent to which
national labour laws, based on international labour standards, offer comprehensive
protection of workers in all sectors. The section below provides an overview of the
findings of a 2015 ILO review of a large number of bilateral agreements across different
regions and discusses some of these areas in more detail.

3.4. Good practices and the model agreement

in Recommendation No. 86
77. The 2015 ILO study evaluated bilateral labour migration agreements according to:
(1) their comprehensiveness and scope, with reference to coverage of the provisions in the
model agreement annexed to Recommendation No. 86; and (2) their quality, on the basis
of 18 criteria for good practice in labour migration governance and protection of migrant
workers drawn from international norms and in consultation with ILO experts. 23
78. The study found that no agreement incorporated all the 27 relevant provisions of the
model agreement, with the average containing only 11 provisions. Equal treatment
provisions were more prevalent in agreements in Europe and the Americas, whereas
provisions on the employment contract were more likely to be found in those in Asia.
79. Concerning the second set of evaluative criteria based on 18 good practices,
figure 3.1 provides a summary of the results.

20 ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., para. 163.

21 ibid., para. 190.
22Outcome of the discussion by the Committee on the Application of Standards of the General Survey concerning
the migrant workers instruments, ILC, Provisional Record No. 16-1, 105th Session, 2016, para. 106(12).
23 Wickramasekara, op. cit.

36 ILC.106/IV
 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

Figure 3.1. Percentage of bilateral labour migration agreements

that incorporate each good practice (n=144)

100
90 86
85
80
70 66
62
60
Percentage

47 49 49
50
39 38
40 34
30 30
30 25
19
20
6 7
10 2 1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Good practice number
Good practices in mapped agreements:
1 Transparency
2 Publicity
3 Evidence of normative foundations and respect for migrant rights, based on international instruments
4 Specific reference to equal treatment of migrant workers
5 Provisions to promote fair recruitment practices
6 Addressing gender concerns, and concerns of vulnerable migrant workers
7 Social dialogue involving employers and workers, and other stakeholders such as civil society organizations
8 Wage protection measures
9 Concrete and enforceable provisions relating to employment contracts and workplace protection
10 Provision for human resource development and skills improvement through in-service training
11 Concrete implementation, monitoring and evaluation procedures
12 Prohibition of confiscation of travel and identity documents
13 Provision for recognition of skills and qualifications in the destination country
14 Provision of social security and health-care benefits for migrant workers on par with local workers
15 Defining clear responsibilities between partners
16 Incorporation of concrete mechanisms for complaints and dispute resolution procedures, and access to justice
17 Provision of free transfer of savings and remittances
18 Coverage of the complete migration cycle
Source: Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 29 (chart 2).

80. Some of the high percentage scores for the listed good practices are deceptive. While
86 per cent of agreements contain concrete implementation and monitoring and evaluation
procedures (good practice 11) through the establishment of a joint committee of
government officials, only limited information is available on the functioning of such
committees, which have been criticized for a lack of transparency, and their achievements.
For example, the ILO study refers to the acceptance by Kuwait of a model employment
contract as one achievement of the MoU with India. Further, despite the reference to
recruitment in 62 per cent of all agreements (good practice 5), there is little evidence of
commitments to promote fair recruitment practices, harmonize recruitment regulation
among origin and destination countries, or reduce the costs of labour migration.
81. Among other noteworthy findings, almost no information is available on the role of
social dialogue in the drafting, negotiation and implementation of bilateral agreements

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

(good practice 7). The absence of any references to social partners in monitoring and
follow-up provisions is particularly difficult to explain, given that labour ministries in both
origin and destination countries were involved in the negotiation and signature of many
agreements. 24 There are some examples, however, from ILO development cooperation
activities, where workers’ and employers’ organizations have taken part in negotiations of
agreements and their implementation (see section 3.5 below).
82. Second, only 39 per cent of agreements refer to respect for migrant rights, based on
relevant international instruments (good practice 3); however, such references are higher
in Africa (50 per cent) than in Asia (38 per cent) and Europe and the Americas (32 per
cent).
83. A third significant omission applicable to agreements across all regions relates to the
absence of almost any reference to migrant women or other categories of migrant workers,
such as low-skilled migrants, who are at particular risk of abuses (good practice 6). The
inattention to gender issues and lack of gender-sensitive monitoring mechanisms is a
serious concern. 25 One important exception relates to those specific agreements
governing the migration of domestic workers (such as Jordan and Malaysia with Indonesia,
and Saudi Arabia with four Asian countries), 26 some of which contain a standard
employment contract based on provisions in the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011
(No. 189). 27 Inclusion of such model contracts, however, is rare, and where they have
been included, their practical effectiveness has been questioned; this requires more
in-depth investigation. 28
84. A number of gender-specific aspects and measures could be taken into account
during negotiation of bilateral labour migration agreements, namely inclusion of
gender-specific, non-discrimination and rights-based clauses to promote gender equality,
such as explicit prohibition of pregnancy testing; acknowledgment of female-specific
vulnerabilities, for example by establishing protection measures concerning violence
against women in the migration process; and provision for appropriate health care and
social security benefits for women migrant workers. 29
85. Fourth, bilateral agreements are generally silent on the prohibition of confiscation
and/or retention of travel and identity documents (good practice 12), which is unexpected
given that this is a recognized problem in certain destination countries in Asia and the
Arab States and is one of the indicators of forced labour. 30
86. Fifth, provision for recognition of skills and qualifications (good practice 13) is
largely absent. Since the ILO study focused on low-skilled workers, this finding may

24For example, in destination countries such as those in the GCC, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Republic of Korea and
Thailand, and in origin countries such as Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Nepal, Indonesia,
Philippines and Viet Nam.
25
L.L. Lim: Gender sensitivity in labour migration-related agreements and MOUs, Global Action Programme on
Migrant Domestic Workers and Their Families, Research Series, ILO, 2016, p. 1; Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe (OSCE): Guide on Gender-Sensitive Labour Migration Policies, Vienna, 2009, pp. 53–54.
26 Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 26.
27Lim, op. cit., p. 6 (box 4), with reference to the agreement between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia on migrant
domestic workers.
28 Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 28.
29 OSCE: Guide on Gender-Sensitive Labour Migration Policies, op. cit., p. 55.
30Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 30; ILO: ILO Indicators of Forced Labour, Geneva, 2012, p. 17, retention of identity
documents.

38 ILC.106/IV
 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

reflect the fact that governments attach less significance to these issues for such workers
than for highly skilled workers. 31
87. Finally, provision for social security, including health-care benefits (good
practice 14), was found in only 30 per cent of all the agreements mapped, and mainly in
those in Europe and the Americas, and there are shortcomings in terms of ensuring migrant
workers’ equal access to health care. 32 Moreover, the study was limited to identifying
whether provisions referring to social security were included; it did not look at their scope
(risks covered, type and level of benefits) or their concrete application. As explained in
section 3.6 below, migrant workers’ access to social security is often regulated in separate
bilateral agreements.

3.5. ILO support in the design and implementation of

bilateral labour migration agreements
88. The Office is periodically requested by ILO constituents to provide technical
assistance and advice during the formulation and negotiation of bilateral labour migration
agreements. The effectiveness of such assistance, however, depends on the inclusion of
labour representatives of both governments together with social partners (box 3.2).

Box 3.2
Bilateral labour migration agreement between the Republic of
Moldova and Israel in the construction sector
In November 2012, the Republic of Moldova, specifically the Migration Policy
Department within the Ministry of Labour, Social Protection and Family, signed an
agreement with the Government of Israel on the temporary employment of Moldovan
workers in Israel. The aim was to provide enhanced opportunities for regular migration and
reduce the negative effects of irregular migration by ensuring the labour protection and
social protection of workers. The agreement was prepared in consultation with social
partners from both countries and encompassed 1,000 jobs in the construction sector.
Moldovan workers were selected through the local offices of the National Employment
Agency, and priority was given to workers registered under the Unemployment Fund. The
final selection was carried out by the Government of Israel, and the first group of workers
left for Israel in July 2013. The costs of their medical examination, round-trip travel and
documentation were covered by Israel.
Source: ILO–EU-funded project on “Effective Governance of Labour Migration and its Skill Dimensions”
(2011–14).

89. In the bilateral labour migration agreements mapped by the ILO study, there was
hardly any reference to involvement of workers’ and employers’ organizations in
provisions relating to the implementation and monitoring and evaluation of the agreements.
One notable exception, however, is the 2013 agreement between Germany and the
Philippines for health workers (box 3.3). 33

31 Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 30.

32 See also UN: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health, Anand Grover, Human Rights Council, A/HRC/23/41, 15 May 2013,
para. 12.
33Discussed in connection with “Promoting Decent Work Across Borders: A Project for Migrant Health
Professionals and Skilled Workers (2011–2014)”, an EU-funded ILO project.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

Box 3.3
Bilateral agreement between
Germany and the Philippines for health workers
Signed in March 2013, an agreement between Germany and the Philippines facilitates
the entry of Filipino nurses to the German health-care system through a
government-to-government hiring scheme. Its salient features include ethical recruitment
of Filipino workers, equality of treatment for foreign health professionals and cooperation
on human resource development.
The agreement between Germany and the Philippines was also the first to establish
a joint committee responsible for monitoring and evaluating its implementation, which is
comprised of the ministries of labour and health, and trade union representatives from both
countries.
Source: Adapted from Public Services International, PSI Symposium on the German–Philippines Bilateral
Agreement for Health Workers, July 2015, http://www.world-psi.org/en/psi-symposium-german-philippines-
bilateral-agreement-health-workers.

90. The ILO can also play an important convening role in bringing representatives of
governments of origin and destination countries together with social partners to discuss
good labour migration practices and experiences, including those relating to bilateral
agreements. In December 2014, the ILO and the KNOMAD Thematic Working Group on
Low-skilled Labour Migration co-organized a technical workshop in Kathmandu, Nepal,
which discussed the preliminary research findings of the 2015 ILO study. 34 In May 2016,
bilateral governmental cooperation was discussed at an interregional knowledge-sharing
forum on good practices and lessons learned in promoting international cooperation and
partnerships to realize a fair migration agenda for migrant domestic workers in Africa, the
Arab States and Asia, held in Antananarivo, Madagascar. In addition to highlighting
developments in the conclusion of new or impending labour migration agreements,
especially between African and GCC countries, the workshop discussions noted that such
agreements often fail to address specific protection issues experienced by migrant
domestic workers, including gender discrimination. The discussions also referred to other
concerns, such as the agreements’ lack of transparency and limited participation by social
partners and other relevant stakeholders, including migrant domestic workers themselves.
Effective implementation of bilateral labour migration agreements is hampered by the
absence of political will, lack of capacity and resources in both origin and destination
countries, and the exclusion of migrant domestic workers from national labour laws. 35

3.6. Migrant workers’ access to social protection under

bilateral agreements
91. As discussed in Chapter 2, migrant workers face obstacles in accessing social
protection in the destination country. The inclusion of social security provisions in
bilateral labour migration agreements or conclusion of separate bilateral or multilateral
social security agreements can therefore help greatly in extending social protection

34 See the ILO–KNOMAD note summarizing the deliberations of the workshop at: http://www.knomad.
org/powerpoints/low_skilled_labor_migration/KNOMAD%20TWG3%20BLA%20workshop%20summary.pdf.
35Report of the Workshop, p. 10. For all the documents relating to this meeting, see: http://www.ilo.ch/global/
topics/labour-migration/events-training/WCMS_454724/lang--en/index.htm.

40 ILC.106/IV
 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

lawfully and effectively to migrant workers and their families. This should also be viewed
in the context of a more holistic approach comprising the following actions: 36
 ratification and application of ILO Conventions and Recommendations relevant to
migrant workers and their social protection, 37 which also support the conclusion of
bilateral and multilateral social security agreements, 38 and incorporation of
important principles, notably equality of treatment, into domestic law and labour
migration or social security agreements;
 adoption of unilateral measures to provide or enhance access to social protection for
migrants. For instance, destination countries can unilaterally recognize equality of
treatment between nationals and non-nationals, including for specific groups such as
domestic workers and the self-employed, as well as the principle of payment of
benefits abroad. Countries of origin can also unilaterally decide to extend social
protection to their nationals working abroad through voluntary insurance (such as in
Ecuador) or through welfare funds (such as in the Philippines and Sri Lanka);
 establishment of national social protection floors, in line with the Social Protection
Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202), to unilaterally ensure access to essential
health care and to basic income security for all, including migrants and their families;
 implementation of practical initiatives to facilitate effective access to social security,
for instance through translation of texts, awareness-raising campaigns, and ensuring
access to complaint mechanisms.
92. Given the exclusion of specific groups of workers from social protection at the
national level and the absence of social security provisions in bilateral labour migration
agreements or their limited application where they do exist, serious consideration should
be given to the conclusion of comprehensive bilateral and multilateral social security
agreements to provide for the coordination of social security, with the involvement of
social partners in their elaboration and governance. A bilateral social security agreement
is comprehensive in ensuring the social security rights of migrant workers and members
of their families if it pursues five objectives: (i) equality of treatment; (ii) payment of
benefits abroad (“portability” or “exportability” of benefits); (iii) determination of the
applicable legislation; (iv) maintenance of rights in course of acquisition (“totalizing”);
and (v) administrative assistance. 39 However, the conclusion and successful
implementation of social security agreements depend on, among other issues, the
administrative and management capacities of the social security institutions involved, 40

36 G. Binette et al.: Migrant access to social protection under selected bilateral labour arrangements, ILO,
forthcoming, 2017, p. 10.
37See, among others, the Social Security (Minimum Standards) Convention, 1952 (No. 102); Equality of Treatment
(Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118); Equality of Treatment (Accident Compensation) Convention, 1925
(No. 19); Employment Injury Benefits Convention, 1964 (No. 121); Invalidity, Old-Age and Survivors’ Benefits
Convention, 1967 (No. 128); Medical Care and Sickness Benefits Convention, 1969 (No. 130); Maintenance of
Social Security Rights Convention, 1982 (No. 157); Employment Promotion and Protection against Unemployment
Convention, 1988 (No. 168); Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183); Maintenance of Social Security
Rights Recommendation, 1983 (No. 167); and the Social Protection Floors Recommendation, 2012 (No. 202). The
migrant workers and domestic workers instruments also contain social security provisions.
38 Recommendation No. 167 contains a model social security agreement in its Annex.
39K. Hirose et al.: Social Security for Migrant Workers: A rights-based approach, ILO, Budapest, 2011,
pp. 25–37.
40International Social Security Association (ISSA): Handbook on the extension of social security coverage to
migrant workers, Geneva, 2014, p. 8. A key challenge identified in the efficient implementation of social security
agreements is when there are significantly more immigrants than emigrants, which can have financial or
administrative implications for one of the social security institutions. Other barriers include different definitions of

ILC.106/IV 41
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

which is probably also why conclusion of bilateral social security agreements varies
greatly across regions. 41
93. Social security for migrant workers is increasingly being coordinated by way of
multilateral agreements at the regional level, which is viewed as a good practice because
it ensures common standards and rules for the coordination of the social security systems
of all the countries party to the agreement and equality of treatment for migrant workers.
Regional agreements can also provide for a higher level of protection than a network of
bilateral labour migration agreements covering the same countries and regions, where the
rights and obligations depend on the terms of the individual bilateral labour migration
agreement. 42 Examples of different types of regional social security agreements are
provided in Chapter 4.
94. The advent of regional social security agreements, however, does not preclude the
continued need for bilateral social security agreements, which can better target a specific
underserved migrant worker population and also be negotiated and concluded more
quickly than multilateral agreements. 43 In some cases, the conclusion of a bilateral social
security agreement represents a preliminary step laying the ground for future multilateral
agreements, while at the same time providing for an immediate response to migrant
workers’ social protection needs.

3.7. Bilateral agreements between trade unions

95. Recent years have seen increasing bilateral cooperation on the protection of migrant
workers between trade unions in countries of origin and destination, based on a model
trade union agreement on migrant workers’ rights (box 3.4), which is viewed as a good
practice. 44

Box 3.4
Model trade union agreement on migrant workers’ rights
The model trade union agreement of the ILO Bureau for Workers’ Activities (ACTRAV)
and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) reaffirms that freedom of
association is a central and non-negotiable principle and that the participation of migrant
workers in trade unions contributes to their integration in countries of destination.
Signatories commit to promoting the ratification of and respect for ILO Conventions
concerning migrant workers. The agreement emphasizes that the situation of migrant
workers should be addressed through the principles of international trade union solidarity,
social justice, equality of treatment, equal opportunity and gender equality.
The model agreement also commits signatories to:
 raise the specific concerns of migrant workers in their national tripartite labour
committees and encourage affiliated unions to integrate them in collective bargaining
with employers; and ensure that labour legislation and collective agreements fully

disability benefits (such as for medical conditions, partial disability), access to relevant information between
different agencies in home and other countries, and differences in benefit structure and levels, ibid., pp. 40–41.
41
R. Sabates-Wheeler: Social security for migrants: Trends, best practice and ways forward, Working Paper
No. 12, ISSA, Geneva, 2009, p. 10, referring to the conclusion of 1,628 bilateral social security agreements by
EU countries in contrast to 181 by East Asian and Pacific countries, and only three by South Asian countries.
42 K. Hirose et al., op. cit., p. 38.
43 ibid., p. 39.
44 See ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, op. cit., Guideline 2.6.

42 ILC.106/IV
 Bilateral agreements on labour migration

protect all migrant workers, including those involved in temporary labour migration
programmes;
 develop initiatives aimed at securing the involvement of trade unions in the
development of bilateral labour migration agreements between the governments of
origin and destination countries, and the establishment of national tripartite
consultation mechanisms and bilateral cooperation forums to discuss and formulate
rights-based migration policies, taking into account labour market needs, and the
possible expansion and facilitation of regular labour migration channels as a means
of eliminating the exploitation and abusive conditions of workers in irregular situations;
 promote cooperation between governments of origin and destination countries with a
view to enhancing migration governance relating to: the establishment of legal
avenues for labour migration; strengthening labour inspection; legal cooperation in
cases of trafficking and abuse; maintenance of social security entitlements; strict
supervision and control of activities by private employment agencies, in conformity
with Convention No. 181, and subcontractors; and elimination of abuses of
sponsorship schemes.
Source: Adapted from ILO: Good practices database – Labour migration policies and programmes.

96. There are increasing examples of agreements between trade unions in origin and
destination countries on migrant worker protection that draw on this model. 45 In
August 2015, a unique interregional MoU was signed by the Arab Trade Union
Confederation, the ASEAN Trade Union Council and the South Asian Regional Trade
Union Council to promote rights-based cooperation on migration in organizing and
supporting migrant workers. The MoU identified a number of immediate actions,
including: protection of migrant workers by offering direct services, either through unions
or migrant resource centres; raising issues such as gender concerns, confiscation of
passports and regularization of the status of migrant workers; and facilitating bilateral
labour migration agreements between origin and destination countries. 46
97. While bilateral cooperation between trade unions in countries of origin and
destination is a good practice, it cannot replace the obligation of governments of both sets
of countries to safeguard the rights of migrant workers in accordance with national laws
and international labour standards. 47

3.8. Conclusion
98. The Office has now collected and mapped a large number of bilateral agreements on
labour migration. An ILO knowledge-sharing platform in Asia and the Pacific, AP
Migration, has made such agreements in that region publicly available. 48 This serves as a
starting point for developing deeper knowledge of the actual implementation of labour
migration agreements.
99. Constituents have indicated that further work in this area would be warranted. This
would require further guidance, particularly given the changing nature of labour migration
and its governance since the adoption of the model agreement annexed to
Recommendation No. 86.

45ILO: Labour migration and development: ILO moving forward, Background paper for discussion at the ILO
Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration, Geneva, 4–8 November 2013, p. 20 (table 4.1); ILO programme
implementation 2014–15, Report of the Director-General, ILC, 105th Session, 2016, Geneva, para. 197.
46 T. Connell: “Unions in Asia, Gulf Sign Migrant Worker Agreement”, Solidarity Center, 8 Aug. 2015.
47 Cholewinski, op. cit., p. 245.
48 See: http://apmigration.ilo.org.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

100. While the CAS recalled that the CEACR had noted that the objective of the ILO’s
migration instruments was as relevant now as it was when the instruments had been
adopted, it indicated that it was aware that details of certain provisions might be considered
to have “lost their relevance, not being fully responsive to, or necessary, in the current
migration context”. The CAS therefore considered that within the general discussion on
labour migration at the 106th Session of the Conference, the tripartite constituents may
wish to clarify the possible need for a review or consolidation of Conventions Nos 97
and 143, as well as the need to complement the existing international labour standards. 49
101. The model agreement annexed to Recommendation No. 86 accompanying
Convention No. 97 is an example of where a more updated and responsive approach may
be needed to serve as guidance and take account of the changing landscape of labour
migration, including the larger significance of the private sector’s role in recruiting
migrant workers (see Chapter 5). There are further challenges in ensuring effective
implementation, transparency and monitoring across migration corridors. Other important
concerns are raised about changing patterns in the mobility of women migrant workers,
the role of social dialogue in bilateral labour migration agreements, and how best to
include social security provisions in the absence of dedicated social security agreements.
The role of bilateral labour migration agreements in enhancing human resource
development generally and skills development for migrant workers in particular is an
additional question that would benefit from further guidance. 50

49 ILO, Outcome of the discussion, op. cit., para. 15.

50 See also the recommendations in Wickramasekara, op. cit., p. 48.

44 ILC.106/IV
Chapter 4

Regional labour migration and mobility

102. This chapter examines developments in the governance of labour migration and
mobility at the intraregional level, as well as through interregional cooperation. Because
most labour migration and mobility is taking place at the intraregional level, 1 regional
governance is critical to enhancing sustainable development outcomes in regional and
subregional contexts, particularly where there is political consensus to move towards
greater economic integration.
103. Among regional actors in the global South, the experience of the EU, and specifically
its implementation of the right of establishment, has been particularly influential in
promoting the idea of “free movement” as a major driver of economic growth and of
reduction in wage disparities at the regional level. However, there is still limited
knowledge of the actual impact of labour migration on developing countries individually, 2
let alone at the regional level.
104. There are great disparities between and within regions on governance, with different
options ranging from ad hoc visa reciprocity merely facilitating short-term mobility
through to advanced free movement protocols allowing residence, establishment and
labour market integration. Coordinated labour migration and mobility remain major
challenges to many regions, because of political resistance to the reciprocal opening of
labour markets, particularly in countries with high unemployment; the weakness of
regional organizations; or major capacity gaps more specifically at the national level.
105. This chapter reviews the main stumbling blocks that continue to impede strengthened
labour migration and mobility governance at the regional and subregional levels in Africa,
the Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean. 3 The chapter
focuses on five particularly critical and challenging areas and how they are being
addressed by regional economic communities, including through ILO interventions. 4
106. The chapter also looks at two additional dynamics that have a bearing on and reflect
different approaches to regional labour md igration and mobility: first, the interaction

1 ILO: ILO global estimates on migrant workers: Results and methodology, Geneva, 2015.
2 See Chapter 2, box 2.1. While this report focuses on migrant workers, consideration should also be given to the
development and expansion of labour mobility pathways for refugees and other forcibly displaced persons,
including at the regional level. See ILO: Guiding principles on the access of refugees and other forcibly displaced
persons to the labour market, in Third Supplementary Report: Outcome of the tripartite technical meeting on the
access of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons to the labour market (Geneva, 5–7 July 2016),
GB.328/INS/17/3(Rev.), Part F.
3Given that the EU is widely recognized as the most developed regional labour mobility system, the chapter does
not cover the EU per se, but references are made to EU developments and practices where appropriate.
4Selection of issues based on a review of existing regional economic community agreements, protocols and plans
of action on labour migration.

ILC.106/IV 45
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

between regional economic communities and regional consultative processes on

migration; 5 and second, regional trade arrangements containing labour mobility
components.

4.1. Labour migration governance and regional

integration: Trends and challenges
4.1.1. Historical trends and strategic importance of international
labour standards for regional integration
107. Developed economies remain the main destinations for migrants around the world.
However, while the share of migrants living in developed economies has continued to rise,
the growth rate has slowed down relative to previous decades (and in 2014 was constant
relative to 2010), probably as a consequence of the recent economic crisis. 6
108. There is a major historical difference between labour migration towards regions of
destination in the reconstruction period after the Second World War and labour mobility
within regional blocs (in particular the EU integration process), and South–South labour
migration over the past two decades. While the former two occurred simultaneously with
the consolidation of labour laws and social protection systems, current labour migration
towards emerging economies is taking place in the context of often much weaker
systems. 7
109. This growing level of contemporary mobility towards countries with weaker
governance systems has at least two critical implications. The first is an even more
pressing need for the dissemination and mainstreaming of international labour standards
and sustainable technical assistance in order to ensure good governance and the
implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. While South–South labour
migration has the potential to yield positive benefits for migrant workers and their families,
the social and economic costs will remain high, and development benefits low, without
much stronger labour laws and social protection systems, as well as functional labour
market intermediation mechanisms.
110. The second implication is that the regional economic communities and regional
consultative processes play a more significant strategic role in providing their member
States with political guidance and technical frameworks to promote the adoption and
implementation of harmonized policies that are compliant with international labour
standards. They can foster trust, unity and solidarity among origin countries rather than
allow unbridled competition.

4.1.2. Commonalities in labour migration governance

111. An overview of the past 20 years reveals some common attributes that emanate from
the consolidation of regional economic communities and that lay the foundation for
strengthening regional dialogue and cooperation:

5 Regional consultative processes are intergovernmental consultative processes, supported in many instances by
the IOM.
6 ILO: World of Work Report 2014: Developing with jobs, Geneva, p. 183.
7B. Deacon et al.: “Globalisation and the emerging regional governance of labour rights”, in International Journal
of Manpower, Vol. 32, No. 3, 2011, pp. 334–365.

46 ILC.106/IV
 Regional labour migration and mobility

 a degree of labour market openness to non-national labour and skills, including

through skills recognition frameworks;
 a perception that well-governed labour migration works to the benefit of both origin
and destination economies, thus enhancing regional development;
 a need for labour migration to occur within strengthened national labour and social
protection systems, which should be increasingly harmonized;
 a requirement for sustained dialogue on labour migration, at least at the
intergovernmental level;
 strengthening of public employment services and their capacities to cooperate with
other providers, including private employment agencies;
 a need for effective protection mechanisms for migrant workers.
112. A number of these factors, such as skills recognition and social protection, present
significant challenges for negotiated agreements, given the differences in national systems.
In addition, almost all regional economic communities in developing countries face the
following challenges, and address them in very different ways, as discussed in section 4.2:
 implementing regional agreements on labour migration effectively and in a timely
manner;
 collecting harmonized data on labour migration;
 fostering more efficient coordinating and monitoring and evaluation structures at
both the national and regional levels;
 countering limited political will to improve labour migration governance at the
national level;
 regulating the conduct of a growing number of private labour recruiters hampering
the development of fairer recruitment practices;
 resisting increasingly negative public opinion against extending access to labour
market and social protection systems to non-nationals (as was the case for instance
in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) on xenophobic violence,
or more recently during the campaign for the United Kingdom to leave the EU).
113. These challenges present an opportunity for the ILO to strengthen its technical
capacity building on international labour standards and other approaches.

4.1.3. General trends in labour migration and mobility governance

in regional economic communities
114. While a detailed account of recent developments on migration issues in regional
economic communities is beyond the scope of this report, some general trends can be
identified here. Regional economic communities and regional cooperation bodies across
the world have adopted a variety of labour migration governance models. By and large,
they range from free movement, implying the gradual lifting of all barriers to movement,
residence and establishment (the EU model, the Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) or the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR)); facilitation of
movement for specific categories of workers (ASEAN, Caribbean Community
(CARICOM), SADC); mere visa reciprocity agreements or regular exchange of
information (Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)); or protection of the subregion’s workers in
destination countries outside the region (South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC)) (see table 4.1).

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

115. Each regional economic community has its own trajectory, governance system, pace
and objectives, which are usually determined by the history of each region or subregion.
In most instances, regional economic communities were established long after historical
labour migration flows shaped specific political economies. Even though labour migration
is often a secondary issue for them (such as the Community of Sahelo-Saharan-States
(CEN-SAD), AMU and SAARC), regional economic communities make attempts to
address the unintended consequences of already existing labour migration flows.
116. Another characteristic of labour migration and mobility governance at regional
economic community level is the extreme diversity in the size and hierarchy of those
communities. While Latin America and the Caribbean and Asia and the Pacific have a
limited number of subregional economic communities, the Arab States have a single
regional integration entity, the GCC. Africa has one regional organization (the African
Union (AU)) and a total of eight subregional organizations embedded in it, with overlaps
in membership between them, but without any devolution of supranational power, whether
at the AU or regional level.
117. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, there are differences in the funding models
and resources of regional economic communities. While those in Africa, from the AU to
the subregional organizations, are largely dependent on donor funding (which represented
67 per cent of the AU budget, for instance, in 2015), other regional economic communities
have become or have always been entirely self-sustained (ASEAN, EU, GCC,
MERCOSUR, SAARC). This indicates that the dependency on external funding to support
labour migration plans seems to hamper effective coordination and implementation at the
secretariat level within regional communities, whereas member States in regions with
budgetary surpluses are more likely to have line ministries, in particular ministries of
labour and home affairs, with the capacity to roll out and implement regional plans
effectively.

Table 4.1. Advancement of intraregional migration and mobility regimes pursued

by regional economic communities (as of October 2016)

Type of intraregional migration and Enforced and functional Ongoing development Principles adopted
mobility regime pursued
Free movement based on gradual lifting EU, MERCOSUR ECOWAS, EAC AU, COMESA,
of all barriers to movement, residence CAN, ECCAS,
and establishment IGAD, UNASUR
Facilitation of movement for specific ASEAN, GCC SADC, CARICOM
categories of workers
Visa reciprocity for short-term mobility APEC CEN-SAD, AMU
and exchange of information
Protection of workers from the regional SAARC
economic community in employment
outside that community
Note:
APEC – Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
CAN – Andean Community
EAC – East African Community
ECCAS – Economic Community of Central African States
IGAD – Intergovernmental Authority on Development
UNASUR – Union of South American Nations

48 ILC.106/IV
 Regional labour migration and mobility

4.2. Challenges in and responses to the regional

governance of labour migration and mobility
118. While continuing to face numerous challenges linked to political and societal
tensions and, at times, limited financial and human capacity hampering their own
development, regional economic communities have invariably become prominent actors
in labour migration governance. The relationship between the national and the regional
level is of critical importance in building intervention strategies: at times, the regional
process will be a lever through which national processes may be accelerated and
harmonized, as for instance in the case of regional qualifications frameworks that may
assist countries without national frameworks (such as the SADC regional qualifications
framework); in other instances, a cluster of successfully robust systems at the national
level will give momentum to a much broader subregional group in creating “coalitions of
the willing” (as, for instance, the cases of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay, within
MERCOSUR, on social security extension).

4.2.1. Improving data collection for policy-making

at the regional and national levels
119. In order for labour migration and mobility within the regional economic
communities to be successful, it is critical to have harmonized data. The regional economic
community is a particularly pertinent and reasonable scale for harmonization, as member
States will often share similarities in statistical collection methods and an interest in
specific indicators. However, reluctance to share border control data, and disparities in
resources, frequency of surveys and statistical coordination mechanisms remain major
obstacles to better integration. Some regional economic communities, however, have
made substantive progress in coordination.
120. One of the most advanced examples in this area is the International Labour Migration
Statistics Database in ASEAN, one of the highlights of the ILO Tripartite Action for the
Protection of the Rights of Migrant Workers in the ASEAN Region project (ASEAN
TRIANGLE). The database is the first of its kind in the region, and has been replicated in
the Arab States. 8 It gathers together official government data from a range of statistical
sources on the stocks and flows of migrant workers within the region as well as on
nationals of the various countries who are living or working abroad. The database fills an
important knowledge gap, creating a powerful research tool through which policymakers
and others can profile and monitor the international migrant labour force within the
region. 9
121. Another example is the SADC member States’ harmonization of labour migration
modules across labour force surveys and the training of all 15 member States’ national
statistics officers in standard reporting, within the framework of the SADC Labour
Migration Action Plan 2013–15, which will be continued in the 2016–19 Action Plan. 10
122. ILO assistance to regional economic communities could be strengthened with more
systematic availability of statistics and resources in ILOSTAT and NORMLEX grouped
under regional economic communities. In addition, awareness raising of constituents and
8 Migration and Government Network (MAGNET), currently hosted by ILOSTAT.
9 The ASEAN International Labour Migration Statistics database and accompanying materials, such as a guide and
analytical report, can be accessed from the Asia Pacific Migration Network at: http://apmigration.ilo.org/asean-
labour-migration-statistics.
10 ILO: Report on SADC Capacity-Building Workshop on Work Statistics (19th ICLS Resolution) and Labour

Migration Statistics, 15–19 December 2014, Johannesburg.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

secretariat staff at the regional economic community level could be conducted more
systematically to ensure familiarization with ILO instruments in addition to national
labour administrations.
123. Both quantitative and qualitative data is important for policy-making. In this respect,
ECOWAS has opted for a series of targeted studies and guides on issues such as
implementation of existing protocols, labour market information systems, social security
coordination, effective protection of migrant workers and harmonization of policies in
order to enhance its regional integration processes. The ILO has supported this effort
through its participation in the joint Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West
Africa programme (2013–18), funded by the European Commission.

4.2.2. Protection of migrant workers’ rights, including

fundamental principles and rights at work
124. Protection of migrant workers’ rights is an area where implementation remains too
limited. However, some developments are encouraging. The Declaration on the Protection
and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, signed by ASEAN leaders in 2007,
prescribes, inter alia, decent living and working conditions and employment protection for
migrant workers in the ASEAN region. ASEAN has committed to negotiating an
instrument to implement this Declaration by April 2017. The ILO has supported ASEAN’s
efforts in this area. Building on its regional work, the ILO’s ASEAN TRIANGLE
project (2012–16) focused on supporting ASEAN in reducing the exploitation of migrant
workers in the region through increased regular and safe migration and improved labour
protection. It aimed to make regional approaches more effective and enhance the capacity
of institutions in the Association. Two other projects, ASEAN TRIANGLE Phase II
(2017–20) and TRIANGLE II (2016–26), have complementary aims and are linked
through a combined regional theory of change. 11
125. Protection issues are sometimes very specific to certain occupations and categories
of workers, which is where a corridor approach within regional economic
communities may be useful. The ILO Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic
Workers (2013–16) took an original approach by combining protection criteria with a
migration corridor approach. The programme culminated in the organization of a tripartite
interregional knowledge-sharing forum on good practices and lessons learned in
promoting international cooperation and partnerships to realize a fair migration agenda for
migrant domestic workers in Africa, the Arab States and Asia, held in Madagascar in
May 2016 (see Chapter 3). 12
126. GCC countries are also grappling with a labour migration and mobility model which,
although fairly liberal in terms of bringing workers in, has been criticized for not
addressing unacceptable conditions of work faced by many migrants. There have been
some changes, however. In 2014, the Third Ministerial Consultation of the Abu Dhabi
Dialogue among Asian countries of origin and Arab destination countries adopted the
Kuwait Declaration, which references the ILO Fair Migration Agenda and the importance
of fair recruitment. The Fourth Senior Officials’ Meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue in

11 ASEAN TRIANGLE Phase II will run from 2017–20, funded by Canada. The TRIANGLE II project will run
from 2016–26, funded by Australia: http://www.ilo.org/asia/whatwedo/projects/WCMS_428584/lang--
en/index.htm. For several concrete examples of results for protection, see the Greater Mekong Subregion
TRIANGLE project (2010–15) at: http://www.ilo.org/asia/whatwedo/projects/WCMS_304802/lang--
en/index.htm.
12 Outputs of the global action programme are available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-
migration/events-training/WCMS_454724/lang--en/index.htm.

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 Regional labour migration and mobility

May 2016 recommended that the upcoming Fourth Ministerial Consultation take up
bilateral and multilateral cooperation on skills development, certification and recognition
and the leveraging of occupational skills recognition in the development of model
admission and mobility policies. Furthermore, the ILO project Regional Fair Migration in
the Middle East (FAIRWAY) (2016–18) focuses on the plight of the most vulnerable
workers, namely those in domestic and construction work. The project aims to promote
policy change informed by evidence-based research, support improved implementation of
laws and policies, and address discriminatory attitudes towards migrant workers.
127. ILO constituents have also developed tools for the protection of migrant workers.
These include the use of the ACTRAV–ITUC model bilateral trade union agreement 13
and a manual for trade unionists on the protection of migrant workers 14 in the
development of the 2015–19 Plan of action on the protection of migrant workers by the
Commission of Indian Ocean Trade Unions, a subregional platform of trade unions.
Another example is the development of a manual for trade unions within the ASEAN
TRIANGLE project. 15

4.2.3. Matching of migrant workers’ skills and qualifications

to available jobs across borders
128. Recognition of skills and qualifications and matching them with appropriate
occupations is key to the effective mobility of migrant workers within a region, and has
gained prominence on the agenda of many regional economic communities. There are still
large obstacles owing to different education systems and traditions at the national level,
and at the same time there is also an overemphasis on formal academic skills to the
detriment of migrant workers with vocational and artisan experience. Harmonization of
skills recognition processes at the subregional or regional level remains a challenge.
129. As low- to medium-skilled workers are often neglected in formal qualifications
framework models, there is a need for regionally recognized “translation tools” that allow
skills to be evaluated easily regardless of the qualifications migrant workers hold. This is
the principle behind the Regional Model Competency Standards for Asia and the Pacific,
which do not define qualification levels but rather cluster competencies in logical
groupings that can be translated into each country’s classification system as required. The
latest such guide, for domestic work, 16 will potentially help more than 20 million domestic
workers in Asia and the Pacific.
130. In January 2015, the common market of the GCC was further integrated to allow full
equality between GCC citizens in respect of employment, social insurance and retirement
coverage. Interoperability of professional qualifications is also under way. However,
non-GCC citizens are not (yet) part of these efforts. A joint IOM–ILO project on enhanced
recognition of skills and reduced vulnerability of Sri Lankan construction workers in
selected GCC countries was designed to target the skills enhancement of this diaspora of
migrant workers across the region. The project is presently being implemented in the
United Arab Emirates.

13 See Chapter 3, box 3.4.

14ILO: In search of Decent Work – Migrant workers’ rights: A manual for trade unionists, ILO-ACTRAV, Geneva,
2008.
ILO: Good practices on the role of trade unions in protecting and promoting migrant workers’ rights in Asia,
15

RO–Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, 2014.

16 ILO: Domestic Work, Regional Model Competency Standards Series, Geneva, 2015.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

4.2.4. Enhanced social protection, including through the

coordination of social security rights and benefits
131. While migrant workers contribute to the social security system of either their home
or destination country, they often enjoy few or no benefits because of a lack of social
security coordination in the absence of bilateral or multilateral agreements, which may
prevent them from receiving benefits under the systems of any of the countries in which
they have worked.
132. The regional scale is a particularly appropriate level at which to improve
coordination, generate common standards and regulations, promote solidarity and protect
migrant workers. One important advantage of multilateral agreements over bilateral
agreements (discussed in Chapter 3) is that the same provisions apply to all migrant
workers, irrespective of their country of origin, within the area covered by the agreement.
133. Progress in the adoption of multilateral frameworks at the regional and interregional
levels has been recorded across all regions, and most have received ILO support (box 4.1).
However, harmonious implementation remains a major challenge, and further support to
strengthen capacity is needed.

Box 4.1
Examples of regional social security agreements which have
received ILO support and technical expertise
 EU regulations on the coordination of social security systems (EU Member States,
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland)
 ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Social Protection
 Multilateral Ibero-American Social Security Agreement (to which 12 Latin American
countries, Portugal and Spain are signatories)
 CAN proposal for an Andean migratory status
 CARICOM Agreement on Social Security (13 countries of the Caribbean region)
 CIPRES (Inter-African Conference on Social Welfare) Multilateral Agreement on
Social Security (15 French-speaking countries in Western and Central Africa and the
Indian Ocean)
 ECOWAS General Convention on Social Security (enables retired migrants and
migrant workers who had worked in one of the ECOWAS member States to exercise
their right to social security in their country of origin)
 MERCOSUR Multilateral Social Security Agreement

4.2.5 The role of social dialogue in regional labour mobility

134. The history of the relationship between labour migration and social dialogue varies
greatly from country to country. Challenges to social dialogue on labour migration issues
include the absence of any tripartite tradition among ministries of the interior and of
foreign affairs, which are still responsible for migration governance in many countries,
and obstacles to freedom of association and the right to organize and bargain collectively
for both national and migrant workers. By and large, labour migration governance has
been characterized by a deficit of social dialogue. 17

17ILO: International cooperation and social dialogue for well-governed national and international labour
migration and regional mobility, background paper for the ILO Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration,
Geneva, 4–8 November 2013 (unpublished).

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 Regional labour migration and mobility

135. The current consolidation of labour migration regimes within regional economic
communities should be seen as an opportunity to instil the principles of tripartite social
dialogue in labour migration governance processes, which needs to be supported by
capacity building of relevant institutions and social partners.
136. While challenges to better social dialogue on labour migration issues remain, there
have been numerous substantive breakthroughs in many regional economic communities
(table 4.2).

Table 4.2. Social dialogue in regional economic communities

Regional economic Adopted measures

community
ASEAN The ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour is a good example of robust and functional tripartite
social dialogue on labour migration issues. Its establishment was supported by the ILO
ASEAN TRIANGLE I project, which had adopted a tripartite approach from inception,
supporting several ASEAN tripartite technical meetings. These efforts will be sustained
within ILO ASEAN TRIANGLE II.
CAN and MERCOSUR Both the CAN and MERCOSUR have internal tripartite structures which regularly table
labour migration issues or which are entirely dedicated to labour migration governance,
such as the CAN’s Andean Instrument for Labour Migration or MERCOSUR’s Technical
Subgroup No. 10.
CARICOM In CARICOM, employers’ and workers’ councils have signed an MoU in order to facilitate
the conducting of business and the circulation of workers through harmonized legislation.
ECOWAS In December 2010, ECOWAS member States adopted the Draft Supplementary Act
Establishing the ECOWAS Social Dialogue Forum, which formalized this ILO-supported
body.
SADC The SADC Employment and Labour Sector functions in a tripartite manner: the SADC
Labour Migration Action Plan (2016–19) and the 2014 Labour Migration Policy Framework
are the result of “tripartite plus” discussions and negotiations supported by the ILO.

4.2.6. ILO adaptation to challenges of regional integration

137. The ILO approach to development assistance in the field of labour migration is
shaped by its standards, reference frameworks and priorities. These have been mostly
designed for interventions at the national level. The ILO has therefore had to adapt them
to accommodate the growing development cooperation needs of regional economic
communities.
International labour standards
138. International labour standards have remained an essential tool for the harmonization
and convergence of legislation and guiding frameworks at the national and regional levels.
While this has not necessarily translated into higher ratification rates of ILO Conventions
Nos 97 and 143, the references to them and to related Conventions and Recommendations
(such as Conventions Nos 181 and 189 and Recommendations Nos 86 and 151) as model
law, providing a benchmark for national laws and supporting jurisprudence and litigation,
have continuously informed labour migration agendas across regional economic
communities. For example, the 2014 SADC Labour Migration Policy Framework, the
2012 ECOWAS General Convention on Social Security, the 2007 ASEAN Declaration on
the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, and the CAN Instrument
for Safety and Health at Work all draw directly on ILO Conventions and
Recommendations related to migration.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

139. The continued relevance of international labour standards can also be seen in recent
ratifications of new instruments such as the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011
(No. 189), in Latin America, Africa and Asia; in the inclusion of ratification processes for
Conventions Nos 97 and 143 on the agenda of several regional economic communities,
particularly in Africa (such as the AU Joint Labour Migration Programme); and in the
reference to ILO standards such as Recommendation No. 86 and the annexed model
bilateral labour agreement (see Chapter 4) as benchmarking tools in regional guidelines. 18
Furthermore, there have been numerous discussions and trainings coordinated by the ILO
and other organizations, using ILO tools and standards as educational material. 19
Development cooperation and regional
strategies on labour migration
140. In addition to development cooperation projects (box 4.2), the ILO has developed
regional labour migration strategies, which draw on policy priorities identified by
constituents in ILO regional meetings. For example, the 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional
Meeting, held in Bali in December 2016, identified enhancing labour migration policies
based on relevant international labour standards as a priority for national policy and
action. 20 These strategies are rolled out through ILO regional offices and Decent Work
Teams with the technical backstopping of the Labour Migration Branch. The rapid
emergence of multiple regional partners, regional economic communities and regional
social partners has increased the number of requests for intervention and broadened their
scope. The ILO field structure has been optimized in order to maximize existing resources
and allow assistance at both national and regional or subregional level.

Box 4.2
Examples of development cooperation projects to strengthen linkages
between regional economic communities and member States
Development cooperation projects supported by the ILO have focused on several key
dimensions of labour migration governance, at regional economic community and national
level, reinforcing either the cohesion of a regional economic community framework or the
capacity of a community’s member States to comply with existing frameworks. They have
been an important focus of ILO technical assistance work in collaboration with other
international organizations. The following are some of the most recent examples:
 the Joint Labour Migration Programme, coordinated by the AU Commission, with
support from the ILO, the IOM and the UN Economic Commission for Africa (resource
mobilization stage);
 support to the Free Movement of Persons and Migration in West Africa programme,
funded by the European Commission and coordinated by ECOWAS, with support
from the IOM, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development and the ILO
(2013–18);

18IOM: Regional Guidelines for the Development of Bilateral Labour Agreements in the Southern African
Development Community, Geneva, 2016.
19Some recent examples are: ILO-ACTRAV: Trade Union Manual on Export Processing Zones, Geneva, 2014;
ILO: Achieving decent work for domestic workers: An organizer’s manual to promote ILO Convention No. 189
and build domestic workers’ power, Geneva, 2012.
20ILO: Bali Declaration, adopted at the 16th Asia and the Pacific Regional Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on
9 December 2016, para. 8. See also the Addis Ababa Declaration of the 13th ILO African Regional Meeting in
2015, which identified as a continent-wide policy priority, “enhancing labour migration governance at national,
subregional, regional and international levels, and developing policies that take into account labour market needs”,
based on international labour standards and in accordance with the ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour
Migration, AFRM.13/D.8, para. 13(l).

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 support to the ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour, involving the ILO, the IOM and
UN-Women;
 development and implementation of the SAARC plan of action on labour migration,
supported by the ILO and the IOM.

141. In order to guide ILO interventions and internal organization, internal regional
diagnostic exercises are conducted at regular intervals. A diagnosis and strategy for labour
migration activities in the Africa region were commissioned in 2012. 21 ILO regional
offices in Asia and the Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean have produced
situational reports and strategic plans for the 2016–17 biennium, 22 while ILO human
resources allocated to the technical backstopping of labour migration have been increased
from one regional specialist in 2012 to five in 2016 (in Latin America, Asia and the
Arab States).
142. The ILO has also recently extended the principle of its Decent Work Programmes,
initially conducted only at the national level, to subregions. These plans set out mutually
agreed upon priorities over cycles of four to five years. While there have been only three
subregional Decent Work Programmes to date, two of them, in the EAC (2010–15) and
the SADC (2013–19), feature strong labour migration components among their priorities.

4.3. Regional economic communities, regional

consultative processes on migration and trade
arrangements containing labour mobility
components
143. Besides the increasingly formalized labour migration regimes found among regional
economic communities, at least two processes should also be taken into consideration in
the shaping of current labour migration governance at the regional level. The first is the
role of intergovernmental regional consultative processes, which have contributed to
regional dialogues on labour migration issues for decades. The second is the emergence
of a parallel regime of labour protection in international trade agreements and the
consequences for the treatment of migrant workers that can already be observed.

4.3.1. Regional consultative processes on migration:

Lessons for technical assistance
144. Regional consultative processes, defined as “restricted information-sharing and
discussion forums for states with an interest in promoting cooperation in the field of
migration”, 23 have received continuous attention since their inception in the mid-1980s
and early 1990s.

21A. Segatti and Z. Jinnah: Diagnostic Exercise for an ILO Strategy on Labour Migration in Africa, African Centre
for Migration & Society, Johannesburg, 2014.
22ILO: La migración laboral en América Latina y el Caribe. Diagnóstico, estrategia y líneas de trabajo de la OIT
en la región [Labour migration in Latin America and the Caribbean: Diagnosis, strategy and lines of work of the
ILO], RO–Latin America and the Caribbean, Lima, 2016; ILO: Labour Migration in Asia and the Pacific: Office
Strategy Paper for 2016–17, Bangkok, RO–Asia and the Pacific, 2016 (unpublished).
23 C. Harns: Regional Inter-State Consultation Mechanisms on Migration: Approaches, Recent Activities and
Implications for Global Governance of Migration, IOM Migration Research Series, No. 45, IOM, Geneva, 2013,
p. 19.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

145. Regional consultative processes neither replace nor duplicate existing regional
integration organizations; they play a different role from existing formal organizations. 24
Theirs is more of a consensus-building role between very distinct organizational cultures
(often between security and labour ministries). 25
146. Regional consultative processes within or close to regional economic communities
or similar bodies 26 have a high potential to spawn formal regional agreements on
migration (as recent developments in ECOWAS in relation to the Migration Dialogue for
West Africa and in the SADC in relation to the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa
seem to confirm). In a similar vein, the potential to move from de facto to de jure coherence
in migration governance is stronger in regional economic communities centred on trade
and the common use of regional human resources (such as ASEAN and its Forum on
Migrant Labour). 27
147. Given their commonality of purpose, political cooperation, familiarity of state
services with their regional counterparts, and a range of “soft” coordination skills, regional
consultative processes could serve as useful platforms for informing regional labour
migration governance frameworks. As the IOM serves as a secretariat and convenes global
regional consultative process meetings, 28 the ILO could seek to strengthen its cooperation
with these processes to ensure ILO approaches and standards can be more readily
considered, and to help constituents better engage.
148. The regional consultative processes to date have not been especially conducive to
tripartite social dialogue. They are mostly dominated by issues concerning the
developmental potential of migration flows, which has proved by and large
instrumental. 29 Yet, in other instances, such as the Intergovernmental Consultations on
Migration, Asylum and Refugees and the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking
in Persons and Related Transnational Crime, the migration control and security paradigms
predominate. The principles attached to the ILO’s tripartite social dialogue approach,
which presumes not only inclusivity but also equality of voice between the tripartite
partners, differ from the principle of broad inclusiveness found among regional
consultative processes. This sometimes results in differences in representation between
tripartite structures (under the leadership of ministries of labour, for instance) and regional
consultative processes in which social partners are not represented (such as in the
Intergovernmental Consultations and the Abu Dhabi Dialogue) or are not given the same
prominence as government entities. The ILO could therefore play a part in helping to
facilitate social dialogue in these processes, especially when labour issues are discussed.

24According to two studies in 2010 and 2013, commissioned by the IOM. See ibid. and R. Hansen: An Assessment
of Principal Regional Consultative Processes on Migration, IOM Migration Research Series, No. 38, IOM,
Geneva, 2010.
25F. Channac: “The evolution of international decision-making processes concerning migrations: A comparison
between formal and informal multilateral fora”, in G. Zincome (ed.): Immigration Politics: Between Centre and
Periphery; National States and the EU, ECPR Press, Colchester, United Kingdom, 2002.
26It is important to distinguish stand-alone regional consultative processes, whose development and functioning
has been distinct from that of regional integration organizations, from pillar regional consultative processes, which
are recognized as one of the pillars of regional integration organizations (the Common Market for Eastern and
Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) being cases in point),
or existing formal inter-State processes. Harns, op. cit., pp. 19, 28–32.
27 ibid., pp. 87–88.
28 For more on the IOM’s role, see: http://www.iom.int/global-rcp-meetings.
29 Harns, op. cit., p. 87.

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 Regional labour migration and mobility

4.3.2. Trade agreements and labour mobility

149. There has been a general increase in labour provisions in regional and bilateral trade
agreements, as observed in a recent ILO report. 30 In spite of a growing body of research,
available studies 31 have not focused directly on the impact of these agreements on migrant
workers’ conditions of work. One exception is a recent report by the UN Special
Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. 32
150. That report cautions that trade agreements have the potential to exacerbate the
vulnerabilities of low-wage migrants and directly and systematically violate their human
rights. While most governments have concluded agreements over the past two decades
that incorporate human rights provisions, this has resulted in “increased fragmentation in
the interpretation of international human rights standards, as well as a prejudicial
application of labour mobility arrangements and immigration laws, effectively infringing
upon the human rights of migrant workers and their families”.
151. The Special Rapporteur proposes the drafting and adoption of a global mobility
framework in multilateral and bilateral trade agreements that would strengthen protections
for migrants. Such a framework could build upon the protections specified in the 2006
ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration and the model agreement in ILO
Recommendation No. 86 (see Chapter 3). 33 The Special Rapporteur argues that only
through taking “active measures to merge human rights and trade considerations … [will
it be possible to] mitigate the inherent power imbalances in the global economy and the
asymmetrical emphasis on economic efficiency and short-term gains to the detriment of
migrant labour”. 34 It is possible this issue would be taken up by discussions around new
governance mechanisms in the new Global Migration Compact. The ILO may wish to
consider how best to engage in such discussions.

4.4. Conclusion
152. Integration of labour markets has undeniably progressed globally, resulting in
facilitated labour migration and mobility at the regional level, with multiple approaches
now pursuing different objectives across regions.
153. One key lesson for intervention is that national projects are central to supporting
efforts at the regional economic community level and, conversely, that frameworks
adopted at regional economic community level are very unlikely to be rolled out

30 ILO: Assessment of labour provisions in trade and investment arrangements, Geneva, 2016, p. 11.
31 S. Lavenex and F. Jurje, in “The Migration-Trade Nexus: Migration Provisions in Trade Agreements”, in
L.S. Talani and S. McMahon (eds), Handbook of the International Political Economy of Migration, Elgar, World
Trade Institute, 2016, compare initial intentions under the 1995 World Trade Organization Global Agreement on
Trade in Services to current provisions from a theoretical perspective; the ILO Decent work in global supply chains
report, paras 125–126, touches only in passing on labour provisions in bilateral and regional trade agreements; the
ILO Assessment of labour provisions in trade and investment arrangements report, op. cit., documents the impact
of labour provisions on trade rather than on workers’ conditions of employment; and the ILO-ACT/EMP Research
note: Labour and social policy components in current trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific, Mar. 2015, focuses
on the impact of free trade agreements on the adoption of unsustainable national labour laws.
32 UN: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants on the impact of bilateral and multilateral
trade agreements on the human rights of migrants, Human Rights Council, 32nd session, A/HRC/32/40, 4 May
2016.
33 ibid., para. 70.
34 ibid., para. 91.

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

effectively without efficient national public administrations and social partners with the
ability to take ownership, coordinate and report back to the regional level.
154. Moreover, while frameworks for facilitated migration and mobility are in place
almost everywhere, they are at very different stages of implementation. It will therefore
be critical to monitor their implementation to see whether these instruments afford the
appropriate solutions and, if not, to support constituents in their efforts to strengthen key
aspects such as social dialogue in regional economic community processes.
155. ILO development cooperation and expertise in international labour standards are
sought in many of these processes, with varying degrees of success. However, major
challenges remain in a number of key areas, including with regard to:
 effective lifting of barriers to migration and mobility across national legislative
frameworks;
 coordination of public administrations; and
 adoption of mutual skills recognition frameworks.
156. ILO constituents and the Office should also work more concertedly on building the
capacities of regional economic communities and social partners.
157. Regional consultative processes have proved useful by and large in transforming the
approach of governments and civil society stakeholders to migration and development
issues, especially where they rely on small clusters of stable and able participating States
asserting leadership within a region. However, regional consultative processes have
struggled with tripartite representation.
158. The more systematic inclusion of labour provisions in international trade agreements
is a growing trend. However, available research on migrant workers as a distinct category
of workers in such arrangements is still scarce. More targeted research is therefore
necessary to better understand the kind of protection mechanisms that could be put in place
under these arrangements.

58 ILC.106/IV
Chapter 5

Fair recruitment
159. Ensuring fair recruitment of all workers has been the subject of ILO standards and
work for decades. More recently, ILO constituents have called for a strengthening of ILO
commitments and action in this area. This led to the launch in 2014 of the
multi-stakeholder Fair Recruitment Initiative, which is an integral part of the ILO Fair
Migration Agenda, and the approval by the Governing Body at its 328th Session
(November 2016) of the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair
recruitment. 1 Fair recruitment is also an important element of the commitment by the
international community to reduce labour migration costs, as reflected in the 2030 Agenda.
160. This chapter is framed by the ILO normative and policy framework relating to the
recruitment of workers, especially migrant workers, and the ILO principles and guidelines
for fair recruitment, which bring together the applicable standards in one guiding resource
and set out the responsibilities of all relevant actors in the recruitment of national or
migrant workers. The chapter also provides an overview of some of the emerging policies
and practices to address abusive and fraudulent recruitment, with a focus on protection of
low-skilled migrant workers and with reference to the ILO principles and guidelines and
the Fair Recruitment Initiative.

5.1. Why fair recruitment is important

161. International recruitment covers a wide range of actions: direct hiring by employers
or their representatives; operations conducted by public and private labour recruiters;
hiring of prospective migrants in one country on behalf of an employer in another country
or where a recruiter in one country undertakes to provide employment for migrants in
another country; and various operations accompanying the recruitment procedure, such as
selection, introduction and placement of migrant workers, and their return to the country
of origin after completion of an employment contract. 2
162. According to the CEACR, “regulation of recruitment is an important component of
fair and effective labour migration governance, benefiting from a multi-stakeholder
approach rooted in social dialogue”. 3 Instituting fair recruitment processes can also
contribute to: improved protection for migrant workers, including against forced labour

1ILO: Fourth Supplementary Report: Outcome of the Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment (Geneva, 5–7
September 2016), “Appendix: General principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment”,
GB.328/INS/17/4, pp. 3–13. Also available at: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/projects/WCMS
_536263/lang--en/index.htm. Subsequent references in this chapter to guidelines and principles are to this
document.
2 ILO: Promoting fair migration, General Survey concerning the migrant workers instruments, Report of the

CEACR, ILC, 105th Session, 2016, Geneva, para. 197.

3ibid., para. 194. See also the outcome of the discussion by the Committee on the Application of Standards of the
General Survey concerning the migrant workers instruments, ILC, Provisional Record No. 16-1, 105th Session,
2016, para. 106(3).

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Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape

and trafficking in persons, and a reduction in inequalities and discriminatory practices

based on multiple grounds; more efficient functioning of labour markets; better jobs and
skills matching; healthier competition among businesses; and enhanced sustainable
development outcomes for migrant workers and their families, as well as for countries of
origin and destination.
163. The migrant recruitment landscape today is increasingly complex, and involves a
wide range of actors, both regulated and unregulated. In a number of instances, recruitment
of migrant workers is undertaken by public employment services, and regulations may
require that these are the only entities permitted to operate. 4 With increasing frequency,
however, migrant recruitment is carried out by private employment agencies. The
influence of these agencies has been growing, with the result that they have become a
globalized feature of labour markets today. 5 In 2013, there were almost 260,000 private
employment agencies worldwide, 56 per cent of which were located in the Asia and Pacific
region, 6 although not all of these agencies were involved in cross-border activities. When
appropriately regulated, often through licensing and/or certification, private employment
agencies can operate on a level playing field, reducing commercial uncertainty and
increasing business efficiency and productivity, 7 and play an important role in improving
the functioning of the labour market: “By sourcing candidates and job vacancies, matching
supply and demand of labour and designing workforce solutions, they act as a stepping
stone to employment, increase labour market participation and diversity, turn available
work into job opportunities and further the inclusiveness within the workplace”. 8
164. At the same time, abusive practices also characterize a segment of this industry,
which includes informal intermediaries, unauthorized subagents, and others operating in
the informal economy and outside of the legal and regulatory framework. Low-skilled
workers are particularly vulnerable to abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices,
especially during periods of high unemployment, when competition for jobs is intense, 9
and when there are gaps in legal protection and enforcement. 10 This segment of the
recruitment industry, working in tandem with certain employers, generates large profits
through underpayment of wages and collection of recruitment fees, 11 which are often
charged to low-skilled, low-wage workers, as employers are more willing to pay for the
recruitment of the highly skilled. Other reported abuses include deposits and illegal wage
deductions; violence, including sexual violence; deception about the nature and conditions
of work abroad; retention of passports and other identity documents, which may impact
4 As discussed in Chapter 3 and in section 5.4.4 below, in some countries, public employment services continue to
play a key role in placing workers into jobs across borders in connection with temporary worker programmes
facilitated by bilateral labour migration agreements.
5 ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO Agenda, Report of the Director-General, Report I(B), ILC, 103rd Session,

2014, para. 85.

6International Confederation of Private Employment Services: Economic Report: 2015 Edition, p. 14. The
Confederation changed name in September 2016 to become the World Employment Confederation.
7ILO: Report for Discussion at the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment: Principles and Operational
Guidelines, 5–7 September 2016, MEFR/2016, para. 11.
8 World Employment Confederation: Code of Conduct, 2015, p. 1.
9As is the case for example in the availability of a large pool of low-skilled labour in South Asia for jobs in the
Middle East.
10 ILO: Report for Discussion at the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment, op. cit., para. 1.
11ILO: The cost of coercion, Global Report under the follow-up to the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and
Rights at Work, ILC, 98th Session, 2009, Geneva, paras 12 and 150, estimating that the “opportunity cost” of
coercion to the workers affected by abusive recruitment practices, in terms of lost earnings, was US$21 billion,
comprising US$19.6 billion in underpayment of wages and US$1.4 billion in recruitment fees.

60 ILC.106/IV
 Fair recruitment

on access to health-care services; 12 debt bondage linked to repayment of recruitment fees;

and threats if workers wish to leave their employer. Compulsory pregnancy and
HIV/AIDS tests are also used routinely by some private recruiters, which amount to
discrimination in violation of recognized international standards. 13

5.2. Reducing the recruitment costs

of labour migration
165. Recruitment costs are a significant subset of labour migration costs (see figure 2.1
above). They cover a range of monetary costs, such as fees paid to the labour recruiter or
agent, the price of internal and international transportation, payments for a medical test
and for insurance, and fees for the issuance of passports and visas (table 5.1). 14

Table 5.1. Average recruitment costs paid by migrant workers in selected

labour migration corridors (mean in US$), 2015

Vietnamese to Ethiopians to Filipinos to Indians to Nepalese to Pakistanis to Saudi Arabia

Malaysia Saudi Arabia Qatar Qatar Qatar and United Arab Emirates
Agent 1 248 553 492 551 874 271
Inland 69 128 106 70 108 61
transportation
International 88 281 (a) 296 402 249
transportation
Medical test 28 37 67 52 34 45
Passport 18 19 29 46 75 46
Clearance (d) 2.5 1 5 – – 1
Briefing (d) – – 4 24 9 7
Skills test (e) – – – 11 – –
Insurance 13 – 40 7 37 11
Visa (b) 307 – – – 319 2 823
Other (c) 30 604 – – – 31
Total 1 803.5 1 623 743 1 057 1 858 3 489
(a) International travel mostly paid for by employers.
(b) Reflects price of visas sold, and not the official fee.
(c) Other costs include fees paid to human smugglers and bribes.
(d) No costs mentioned by workers, possibly because these have been included in a lump sum paid to recruitment agents.
(e) For the low-skilled migrants sampled in these surveys, skills tests were not always required.
Source: ILO–KNOMAD Surveys, 2015, cited in Background paper prepared by the ILO at the Global Forum on Migration and
Development, Roundtable 1.1, Reducing migration costs.

12 UN: Report of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Mr François Crépeau, General

Assembly, 70th Session, A/70/310, 11 Aug. 2015, paras 19 and 24: The failure of employers to issue identity cards
may also compromise migrant workers’ access to health-care services.
13ILO: In search of Decent Work – Migrant workers’ rights: A manual for trade unionists, ILO-ACTRAV, Geneva,
2008, p. 45.
14 One particular malpractice is “visa trading”, which occurs in many Gulf countries, whereby visas are issued en

bloc to companies or labour suppliers and then sold to labour recruiters, who pass the costs on to workers when
recruiting in the country of origin. Given that such visas may result in the workers having no specified job at
destination, they may also incur further costs to regularize their stay and employment. R. Jureidini: Ways forward
in recruitment of low-skilled migrant workers in the Asia-Arab States corridor, ILO White Paper, RO–Arab States,
Beirut, 2016, p. 30.

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166. Data from the preliminary ILO–KNOMAD sample survey on migration costs shows
that in the South Asia–GCC labour migration corridor, recruitment costs can amount to
nine months or more of average monthly earnings. However, migrant workers going to
Spain incurred recruitment costs of less than one month’s average monthly earnings. This
disparity demonstrates that the migration corridor is one of the most important
determinants of recruitment costs incurred by workers. The results can be partly explained
by structural factors such as the types of labour migration regimes in place, the degree of
harmonization of national regulations and enforcement mechanisms among origin and
destination countries, and the kind of labour recruiters involved. Another related finding
is that the costs can vary significantly within the same migration corridor, depending on
the workers’ country of origin.
167. Moreover, the level of recruitment costs is unrelated to the quality of jobs or level of
wages at destination. For example, workers migrating to the Republic of Korea and Spain,
where salaries are considerably higher, generally pay lower recruitment costs in terms of
average monthly earnings than those in other migration corridors. The research also
reveals that workers with more education, ties to social networks or previous experience
working abroad and also women workers pay less than first-time men migrants without
links to migration networks, and that irregular migrants incur higher costs than regular
migrants. 15 As observed in Chapter 2, however, the lower recruitment costs incurred by
women domestic workers are offset by higher costs in terms of longer working hours and
poorer conditions. Migration costs relating to working conditions and wages are twice as
high for domestic workers as the recruitment and travel costs incurred. 16
168. As noted in the Introduction, the international commitment to reduce labour
migration costs, including recruitment costs, is now part of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development, particularly targets 10.7 (safe and orderly migration) and
10.c (remittances). With a view to measuring the former target, the ILO and the World
Bank are the custodian agencies for developing a methodology for indicator 10.7.1 on the
cost of migrant worker recruitment. 17

5.3. ILO normative and policy framework

169. The regulation of recruitment has a lengthy history in ILO standard setting. Many of
the earlier ILO provisions on recruitment were incorporated into Annexes I and II of
Convention No. 97 and Recommendation No. 86, the main purpose of which is to protect
migrant workers, facilitate the control and regulation of recruitment, and prevent
unauthorized employment. 18
170. Specific international labour standards apply to the recruitment of workers, both
within countries and across borders, by public employment services and private
employment agencies. The Employment Service Convention, 1948 (No. 88), requires
ratifying member States to maintain a free public employment service that should
cooperate with other relevant public and private bodies to ensure the best possible

15 M. Abella et al.: “Why are Migration Costs High for Low-Skilled Workers? Evidence from Migrant Surveys”,

KNOMAD Working Paper, 2016 (unpublished), pp. 3, 10–17.

16M. Aleksynska et al.: Deficiencies in conditions of work as a cost to labour migration: Concepts, extent and
implications, ILO, forthcoming, 2017.
17Indicator 10.7.1: “Recruitment cost born by employee as a proportion of yearly income earned in country of
destination”. UN Economic and Social Council, Statistical Commission: Report of the Inter-agency and Expert
Group on Sustainable Development Indicators, 47th session, E/CN.3/2016/2/Rev. 1, 19 Feb. 2016, p. 9.
18 ILO: Promoting fair migration, op. cit., para. 195.

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organization of the employment market. 19 The Private Employment Agencies Convention,

1997 (No. 181), and accompanying Recommendation (No. 188) are the current
international standards applicable to private employment agencies. Convention No. 181
establishes the principle that workers shall not be charged “directly or indirectly, in whole
or in part, any fees or costs”. 20 It also requires Members to provide adequate protection
for, and prevent abuses of, migrant workers recruited or placed in its territory by private
employment agencies, including through conclusion of bilateral agreements. 21 Other
sector-specific instruments contain provisions on recruitment across borders, such as the
Maritime Labour Convention, 2006 (MLC, 2006), concerning seafarers, the Work in
Fishing Convention, 2007 (No. 188), and the Domestic Workers Convention, 2011
(No. 189). 22
171. With a view to the prevention of forced or compulsory labour, the Protocol of 2014
to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930, requires, inter alia, measures “protecting persons,
particularly migrant workers, from possible abusive and fraudulent practices during the
recruitment and placement process” and “supporting due diligence by both the public and
private sectors to prevent and respond to risks of forced or compulsory labour”. 23 Further
preventive measures, such as targeted awareness campaigns aimed at workers most at risk
of forced labour, promotion of coordinated efforts by relevant government agencies with
those of other States to facilitate safe and regular migration, and provision of guidance and
support to business and employers to take effective measures to address the risks of forced
labour in their operations, are advanced in the accompanying Recommendation No. 203. 24
172. Recruitment has also been the subject of specific non-binding initiatives of the ILO.
Some months before the ILC adopted Convention No. 181, the ILO Governing Body
convened a Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Future ILO Activities in the Field of
Migration, which produced guidelines on special protective measures for migrant workers
recruited by private agents. 25 Furthermore, Principle 13 of the 2006 ILO Multilateral
Framework on Labour Migration calls upon governments in both origin and destination
countries to give “due consideration to licensing and supervising recruitment and
placement services for migrant workers” in accordance with Convention No. 181 and
Recommendation No. 188, 26 and is accompanied by a series of guidelines on protection
of migrant workers in the recruitment process and regulatory measures.
173. The 2014 ILO Fair Migration Agenda identified “instituting fair recruitment
processes” as one of its key components, acknowledging the need for “renewed efforts
and cooperation with governments to ensure the adequate regulation of [private] agencies,

19 Convention No. 88, Art. 1.

20Art. 7(1). However, Art. 7(2) provides for an exception: “In the interest of the workers concerned, and after
consulting the most representative organizations of employers and workers, the competent authority may authorize
exceptions [to Art. 7(1)] in respect of certain categories of workers, as well as specified types of services provided
by private employment agencies.”
21
Art. 8.
22 MLC, 2006, Art. V(5) and Regulation 1.4; Convention No. 188, Art. 22; and Convention No. 189, Arts 8 and 15.
23 Art. 2(d) and (e).
24 Recommendation No. 203, Para. 4(b), (i) and (j).
25ILO: Report of the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Future ILO Activities in the Field of Migration, Geneva,
21–25 April 1997, Annex II.
26 ILO: ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding principles and guidelines for a
rights-based approach to labour migration, Geneva, 2006, p. 24.

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and to offer workers who are victims of malpractice access to remedies”. 27 Moreover, the
conclusions of the 2016 ILC general discussion on decent work in global supply chains
called on business enterprises, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and
Human Rights, to “carry out human rights due diligence in order to identify, prevent,
mitigate and account for how they address their adverse human rights impacts”. 28
174. The most recent development is the endorsement by the ILO Governing Body in
November 2016 of general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment
(box 5.1), which respond to the recommendation of constituents at the Tripartite Technical
Meeting on Labour Migration. 29

Box 5.1
ILO general principles and operational
guidelines for fair recruitment
The objective of the non-binding general principles and operational guidelines is to
“inform the current and future work of the ILO and of other organizations, national
legislatures, and the social partners on promoting and ensuring fair recruitment”. There
are 13 general principles to orient implementation at all levels and 31 operational
guidelines identifying the responsibilities of key actors in the recruitment process and
containing possible interventions and policy tools.
Key features of the principles and guidelines:
 They are based on existing standards, including human rights instruments,
international labour standards and related ILO instruments, and good practices that
have been brought together for the first time in one guiding resource.
 They include definitions of core terms.
 They are comprehensive in scope, applying to the recruitment of all workers within
and across national borders, and cover all sectors of the economy.
 The general principles underscore that recruitment should take place in a way that
respects and fulfils human rights and international labour standards, and in particular
fundamental principles and rights at work.
 The principles also call for measures against abusive and fraudulent recruitment
practices, including those that could result in forced labour and trafficking. The
principle that no fees or related costs should be paid by jobseekers and workers is
underscored. Particular attention is given to the role of transparent employment
contracts and labour inspection, and use of standardized registration, licensing and
certification systems.
 The operational guidelines identify the specific responsibilities of governments, public
employment services and enterprises, which encompass labour recruiters and
employers.
Examples of the application of some of these guidelines in practice are provided in
section 5.4 below. The ILO aims to implement these guidelines, in collaboration with other
agencies of the Global Migration Group, such as the IOM, which has indicated that they
will serve as a basis for its International Recruitment Integrity System initiative, 1 as well
as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Office of the UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other partners participating in the ILO Fair Recruitment
Initiative.
1
See: https://iris.iom.int/.
Source: ILO principles and guidelines for fair recruitment, op. cit.

27 ILO: Fair migration: Setting an ILO agenda, op. cit., para. 122.
28 ILO: Conclusions concerning decent work in global supply chains, ILC, 105th Session, 2016, para. 18.
29 ILO: Tripartite Technical Meeting on Labour Migration, Geneva, 4–8 November 2013, Conclusions, para. 5(iii).

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 Fair recruitment

5.4. Emerging fair recruitment

policies and practices
175. This section discusses a range of emerging policies and practices relating to fair
recruitment that could be ripe for replication in different settings. 30 In doing so, it draws
on the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment and the work
under the Fair Recruitment Initiative (box 5.2).

Box 5.2
The ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative
The ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative, launched in 2014, is an example of the ILO
working cohesively to respond to a growing global concern. The initiative has three
objectives: to help prevent human trafficking and forced labour; to protect the rights of
workers, including migrant workers, from abusive and fraudulent practices during the
recruitment process; and to reduce the costs of labour migration and enhance
development outcomes. It is a multi-stakeholder initiative, implemented in close
collaboration with governments, the ITUC and the IOE and their affiliates, agencies of the
Global Migration Group, in particular the IOM (which co-chairs with the ILO the Group’s
Task Force on Migration and Decent Work), UNODC, OHCHR and World Bank, and
non-governmental organizations. It serves ILO constituents and other stakeholders in
identifying innovative practices in conformity with relevant international labour standards.
The initiative is based on a four-pronged approach, which puts social dialogue at the
centre:
1. enhancing global knowledge on international and national recruitment practices; 1
2. improving laws, policies and enforcement mechanisms to promote fair recruitment
practices;
3. promoting fair business practices;
4. empowering and protecting workers.
1
This aspect of the initiative has resulted in the publication of the following studies, among others: Andrees et
al., op. cit.; J. Gordon: Global Labour Recruitment in a Supply Chain Context, ILO, Geneva, 2015; K. Jones: For
a fee. The business of recruiting Bangladeshi women for domestic work in Jordan and Lebanon, ILO, Geneva,
2015.
Source: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/fair-recruitment/lang--en/index.htm.

5.4.1. Eliminating recruitment fees and related costs

176. As discussed above, abusive and fraudulent recruitment is often tied to labour
recruiters charging workers unauthorized fees and related costs. In stating that “no
recruitment fees or related costs should be charged to, or otherwise borne by, workers or
jobseekers”, 31 the ILO principles and guidelines reiterate the principle of Convention
No. 181.
177. However, in negotiating the guidelines, the experts recognized that a gap remains in
that there is no global consensus on the scope and definition of recruitment fees and costs.
Governments regulate recruitment and recruitment costs in a myriad of ways. It was agreed
that the definition of fees and related costs “is a subject that future work by the ILO might

30The term “emerging practice” rather than “good practice” is used because “it is not yet possible to establish good
practices regarding models of regulation and enforcement that aim to limit abusive and fraudulent recruitment
practices, either because the practice is too recent and/or its impact has not yet been tested through rigorous
research”. B. Andrees et al.: Regulating labour recruitment to prevent human trafficking and to foster fair
migration: Models, challenges and opportunities, ILO, Geneva, 2015, p. 13.
31 Principle 7 and Guidelines 6 and 17.

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make more precise”. 32 Guidance on this issue would remove ambiguity and help
stakeholders better operationalize the guidelines on fair recruitment.
178. In labour migration corridors with high numbers of low-skilled workers, regulations
often differ. For example, some destination countries provide that recruitment fees and
costs are to be paid by the employer, whereas origin country regulations may permit labour
recruiters to charge workers but cap the fee at a certain amount. In the context of this
regulatory disparity, other factors contribute to high recruitment costs, such as the almost
unlimited supply of low-skilled workers willing to work abroad, ineffective enforcement
of existing rules, allegations of corrupt practices and collusion between labour recruiters
and government officials, and the small number of employment agencies operating in
these corridors that comply with national laws prohibiting the charging of fees or related
costs to low-skilled workers. 33
179. Improved cooperation, therefore, between destination and origin countries across
migration corridors to reduce recruitment costs, and labour migration costs more generally,
and harmonize regulatory frameworks would be an important step forward. As observed
in the ILO principles and guidelines and in Chapter 3 above, bilateral labour migration
agreements can play an important role in facilitating such cooperation, with the inclusion
of oversight mechanisms and meaningful participation of social partners. 34 Laws and
regulations prohibiting the charging of fees and related costs to workers also need to be
supplemented by efforts to change the culture of “payment expectations”, prevalent for
example in the Asia–GCC migration corridor. 35
180. Debt resulting from recruitment fees may also affect the capacity of migrant workers,
particularly women, to leave abusive situations, which may increase their vulnerability to
violence or abuse. 36 In addition to applying adequate enforcement measures, one practical
response is to ensure that labour recruiters participate in awareness-raising and training
programmes on the rights of women migrant workers, gender-based discrimination, the
exploitation women could experience and the responsibilities of recruiters towards
women. 37

5.4.2. Innovative regulatory frameworks

181. International labour standards set conditions governing the operation of private
employment agencies in both origin and destination countries, which is to be determined
by a standardized registration, licensing or certification regime, except where they are
otherwise regulated or determined by appropriate national law and practice. This is
supported by the ILO principles and guidelines. 38 Emerging good practices include the
establishment of regulatory frameworks in a number of Canadian provinces requiring both
the licensing of agencies recruiting foreign workers and employer registration, as well as

32 ILO: Final report: Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment (Geneva, 5–7 September 2016), March 2017, para. 44.
33
For example, see Jureidini, op. cit., p. 21, who observes that there are only a few agencies that do not pass on
their costs to low-skilled workers in the Asia–Arab States corridor.
34 Guideline 13.
35 Jureidini, op. cit., pp. 8, 15 and 35.
36UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women: General recommendation No. 26 on
women migrant workers, CEDAW/C/2009/WP.1/R, 5 Dec. 2008, para. 15.
37 ibid., para. 24(b)(iv).
38 Convention No. 181, Art. 3(2); Principle 5 and Guideline 4.2.

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proactive enforcement mechanisms. 39 Another example is the licensing system applied

by the UK Gangmasters Licensing Authority, which enshrines eight key standards into a
licensing code of practice that have to be satisfied by private employment agencies,
including those based in origin countries who supply workers for employers in the United
Kingdom, before being granted a license or wishing to retain their license. 40

5.4.3. Effective grievance mechanisms

182. The ILO principles and guidelines underline that all workers, irrespective of their
presence or legal status in the country, should have access to free or affordable grievance
procedures and other dispute resolution mechanisms to address alleged abusive treatment
in the recruitment process, and effective and appropriate remedies should be provided
where abuse has occurred. 41 The Office has assessed complaints mechanisms in a number
of Asian countries and suggested improvements, which has resulted in an increase in
complaints (box 5.3).

Box 5.3
Recruitment violations and complaints
mechanisms in Asia: ILO assistance
To address recruitment violations, countries of origin need to establish a complaints
mechanism. The ILO has assessed complaints mechanisms in Bangladesh, Cambodia,
Sri Lanka and Thailand and concluded that, for the mechanism to be effective, some of
the key factors include: availability of gender-responsive support services to help workers
use the mechanism (these can be provided by trade unions, civil society organizations or
the government); well-trained conciliation officers; and a unified approach to avoid
duplication. With ILO development assistance, Cambodia introduced legislation and set
up a complaints mechanism in 2013. Migrant worker resource centres were opened at the
same time. This was followed by a high uptake of the complaints mechanism by migrant
workers.
Source: N. Baruah: “Labor Migration Infrastructure and Services in Countries of Origin in Asia”, in Asian
Development Bank Institute, OECD and ILO: Labour Migration in Asia: Building Effective Institutions, Tokyo,
Paris, Bangkok, p. 27.

183. The Office is also developing, in collaboration with the ITUC, a web tool to enable
workers to access essential information on their rights during the recruitment process and
assess labour recruiters. In addition, it is working on a system for reporting violations, in
partnership with the Migrant Forum in Asia non-governmental organization, to strengthen
access to remedies.
184. The role of workers’ organizations in promoting fair recruitment is key. Indeed, it
would have been valuable to address the responsibilities of workers’ organizations within
the fair recruitment guidelines, but there was insufficient time for the experts to develop
and agree upon them. It was agreed, however, that this may be a pertinent subject for future
ILO work. 42

39For example, the Manitoba Worker Recruitment and Protection Act, 2008, cited in Andrees et al., op. cit.,
pp. 47–48 (box 3.2).
40 ibid., pp. 79–80 (box 3.9).
41 Principle 13 and Guidelines 2.1, 8, 15.5 and 27.
42 ILO: Final report: Meeting of Experts on Fair Recruitment (Geneva 5–7 September 2016), op. cit., para. 137.

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5.4.4. Government-to-government recruitment

185. The ILO principles and guidelines also apply to public employment services
(box 5.1). Government-to-government arrangements that authorize migrant worker
recruitment only through public employment services in both destination and origin
countries can contribute to fairer recruitment. One notable example is the MoUs concluded
by the Republic of Korea with 15 countries of origin regulating the admission of workers
into selected sectors (agriculture, construction, manufacturing, fisheries and services)
under the Employment Permit System, subject inter alia to applicants passing a Korean
language proficiency test. 43 This government-to-government set-up has also significantly
reduced the costs of labour migration to the Republic of Korea, 44 mostly for Korean
language tests and transportation. 45

5.4.5. Bypassing labour intermediaries

186. Excluding labour intermediaries through direct employer recruitment is another
practice that could be promoted, provided adequate regulations and conditions are in place.
The possibility of direct recruitment by government and enterprises is also recognized in
the ILO principles and guidelines. 46 In the United States, the Fair Food Code of Conduct,
which came about through sustained action on the part of the Coalition of Immokalee
Workers, a membership-based human rights organization of farmworkers, and supported
by a number of large companies, prohibits labour intermediaries and commits tomato
growers to hire field workers directly. If a violation is not remedied within four weeks,
participating buyers are required to stop purchasing from the grower in question. 47 Direct
recruitment can also be facilitated through information technology, for example by
holding online employer–worker interviews, 48 using social media applications such as
LinkedIn, or setting up job databanks that aim to match job vacancies with available
workers, such as the European Job Mobility Portal operating within the EU. 49

5.4.6. Standard employment contracts and

electronic payment of wages
187. Providing workers with clear, transparent and written contracts is an important
feature of the ILO principles and guidelines. In the case of migrant workers, such contracts
should be: in a language the worker can understand, provided sufficiently in advance of
departure from the origin country, subject to measures preventing contract substitution,
and enforceable. 50 The development, widespread use and appropriate enforcement of
standard employment contracts containing terms consistent with international labour

43See: https://www.eps.go.kr/ph/index.html; M.J. Kim: The Republic of Korea’s Employment Permit System
(EPS): Background and Rapid Assessment, International Migration Papers No. 119, ILO, Geneva, 2015; and
ILO: Pioneering a system of migration management in Asia: The Republic of Korea’s Employment Permit System
approach to decent work, RO–Asia and the Pacific, Bangkok, Sep. 2010.
44ILO: Pioneering a system of migration management in Asia, op. cit., p. 9, which observes that the average
recruitment cost decreased from US$3,509 during the 1990s Industrial Training System to US$1,097 under the
Employment Permit System.
45Abella et al., op. cit., pp. 13–14 (figure 1c.) and 19. However, passing a Korean language test means only that
the successful applicant is available for selection and provides no guarantee for securing employment in the country.
46 Guidelines 14.1 and 15.3.
47 Gordon, op. cit., pp. 39–40.
48 Jureidini, op. cit., pp. 32 and 36.
49 See: https://ec.europa.eu/eures/public/homepage.
50 Principle 8 and Guidelines 7 and 26.

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standards militates against the practice of illegal contract substitution, 51 particularly in

sectors such as domestic work that are frequently excluded fully or partially from the scope
of labour laws. 52 The ability of migrant domestic workers and other categories of “at risk”
workers to benefit fully from the protection of the existing labour law frameworks is
inextricably linked to fair recruitment processes. 53 As observed in Chapter 3, attaching
standard employment contracts to bilateral labour migration agreements is viewed as a
promising practice, although evidence of the actual use and practical effectiveness of such
contracts remains limited. 54 Registration of employment contracts with a central
government authority at destination may help prevent contract substitution; moreover,
requiring employers to deposit workers’ wages directly into their bank account, as
practised in some Gulf countries, can help to ensure timely payment of the wages promised
to workers in their contract, provided that such a system is supported by regular monitoring
and enforcement mechanisms 55 in accordance with the Protection of Wages Convention,
1949 (No. 95).

5.4.7. Joint liability

188. A number of countries have enacted joint liability arrangements 56 with the aim of
ensuring that both recruiters and employers can be held liable for violations of workers’
rights in the recruitment process. Promotion of government schemes to this effect is
supported by the ILO principles and guidelines. 57 The complexity of supply chains
arguably requires that a degree of legal responsibility for the treatment of workers should
be attributed to the firm at the top of the chain, given that it has decided to structure its
enterprise through subcontracting arrangements, often with a view to lowering its costs
and risks, while retaining functional control over key aspects of the work contracted out. 58
189. To date, however, ILO research has concluded that “challenges still exist with joint
liability schemes, particularly in the cross-border context where implementation requires
the collaboration of both countries of origin and destination”. 59 For example, with regard
to liability for payment of fees or related recruitment costs, there are practical difficulties
in establishing the burden of proof of payment, since receipts are rarely provided, or if
provided only indicate the maximum payment permissible by law. 60 Enabling migrant
workers at both destination and origin to access effective remedies in the event of
violations under such arrangements through easy-to-use complaints mechanisms is an
important complementary measure.

51 Cf. Jureidini, op. cit., p. 24.

52
See ILO: Domestic workers across the world: Global and regional statistics and the extent of legal protection,
Geneva, 2013.
53 Regarding migrant domestic workers, see Convention No. 189, Art. 15.
54Wickramasekara: Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on Migration of Low Skilled Workers:
A Review, op. cit., p. 28.
55 Jureidini, op. cit., p. 11.
56 For example, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Philippines, Slovakia. See Andrees et al., op. cit., pp. 30, 70 and 78.
57 Guideline 5.2, which adds that such schemes “could include shared responsibility initiatives, and other initiatives
to promote fair recruitment practices”.
58 Gordon, op. cit. p. 19.
59 Andrees et al., op. cit., p. 82.
60 Jureidini, op. cit., p. 16.

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5.4.8. Due diligence in supply chains

190. The exercise of due diligence in supply chains to ensure that employers, contractors
and subcontractors do not use the services of recruiters who engage in abusive practices is
an emerging practice undertaken by a number of multinational companies and those
recruiters who are committed to fair and ethical recruitment. 61 The ILO principles and
guidelines contain a definition of due diligence and strongly support this practice, which
is applicable to all relevant actors in the recruitment process. 62 Due diligence
requirements can also be an integral part of effective regulation and enforcement. 63 This
is illustrated by Canadian provincial legislation, which contains measures requiring
employers to scrutinize recruiters and their labour supply chains, including through
enhanced reporting obligations. Another example is a recent United States regulation
requiring all contractors and subcontractors tendering for federal contracts to examine
their labour supply chains to ensure compliance with anti-trafficking laws and to prevent
misleading or fraudulent recruitment practices, including the charging of recruitment fees
to workers. 64 Furthermore, project tenders should also contain a separate, transparent
labour recruitment cost analysis within bidding proposals that details variable and fixed
costs of recruitment, including the costs of subcontractors, and the lowest bids should be
carefully scrutinized to ascertain whether cost reductions are at the expense of migrant
workers being recruited. 65
191. Under the Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment, 66 the Office is testing models
that support the exercise of due diligence in selected countries and sectors (box 5.4).

61For example, in May 2016, the Coca-Cola Company, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IKEA and Unilever
launched the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, focused on promoting ethical recruitment and
combating the exploitation of migrant workers in global supply chains across industries. See:
http://www.ihrb.org/pdf/reports/IHRB-Statement-of-Intent-Employer-Pays-Principle-Leadership-Group-for-
Responsible-Recruitment.pdf.
62 Guidelines 2.1, 11.1, 15 and 21.1.
63 Guideline 14.
64 See Andrees et al., op. cit., p. 48 (box. 3.2) on the Manitoba approach, and pp. 50–51 (box 3.3) with reference to

Executive Order 13627, Strengthening Protections Against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts.
65 Jureidini, op. cit., pp. 19–20.
66 See: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/projects/WCMS_405819/lang--en/index.htm.

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Box 5.4
Establishing a fair migration corridor between Nepal and Jordan
Under the Integrated Programme on Fair Recruitment, and in collaboration with Better
Work Jordan, the Office is implementing a pilot recruitment model in the apparel sector,
with a view to establishing a fair recruitment migration corridor between Nepal and Jordan.
The model is based on a number of intervention tracks, including:
 collaboration with private employment agencies which have a proven model of fair
recruitment;
 development of learning sessions with factory owners and human resource
managers to raise awareness of the benefits of fair recruitment;
 strategic engagement with international buyers to develop and share innovative
ways to reduce fraudulent and abusive recruitment practices in global supply chains;
 enhancement of the capacity of trade unions in both countries to improve
organization and representation of migrant workers, and monitoring of recruitment-
related abuses; and
 consultation with the governments of both countries to discuss improvement of
current regulations and their enforcement, and to facilitate the conclusion of a
bilateral labour migration agreement in line with international standards.
Source: http://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/events-training/WCMS_464656/lang--en/index.htm.

5.5. Conclusion
192. The launch of the ILO Fair Recruitment Initiative has helped to join together the
different strands of the Office’s work in this area both at headquarters and in the field, in
close collaboration with tripartite constituents and other partners. Nevertheless, there is
room for improvement in the knowledge base at the national, bilateral, regional and global
levels of how recruitment of migrant workers is conducted, especially in the context of
increasingly complex labour supply chains, and on how best to promote and implement
fair recruitment business models in migration corridors.
193. This discussion has demonstrated that ILO standards relating to recruitment are
dispersed over a wide range of binding and non-binding instruments, which led to the
development of the ILO general principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment.
194. The principles and guidelines are still at an early stage of implementation and more
dissemination and monitoring of their impact will be needed. There were, however, a
number of outstanding issues that remain as gaps in the guidelines, for example the scope
and definition of recruitment fees and costs, and the role and responsibility of workers’
organizations in the area of recruitment. These were noted as areas for future ILO work.

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Chapter 6

Conclusions and the way forward

195. The changing patterns of migration and the increasing level of human mobility
occurring today have moved this issue to the top of constituents’ policy agendas. This is
evidenced not least by UN member States’ adoption of the New York Declaration in 2016
and their commitment to adopting for the first time a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migration in 2018. As indicated, decent work and labour migration and its
governance will be a crucial element of the Compact. The general discussion therefore
provides a timely and valuable opportunity for ILO constituents to contribute to the Global
Compact. It is also an opportunity for the ILO to assert its competitive advantage, reflected
in its historical legacy, experience and standards framework.

6.1. Key conclusions

196. This report has drawn attention to a number of areas that are important to ensuring
fair and effective labour migration governance, in particular pertaining to bilateral and
regional arrangements and to the recruitment of migrant workers. It has highlighted
relevant ILO standards, detailed the Organization’s work in these areas, provided
examples of good practices and discussed the most significant gaps which require
additional guidance. These elements will be important for constituents to consider in
charting a coherent way forward.
197. The conclusions that have emerged can be summarized in three key areas for further
consideration.

1. Protecting migrant workers and reducing

the costs of labour migration
198. Labour migration can have significant positive economic and development benefits
if well governed and aligned with international labour standards. Governments have the
primary responsibility to ensure the protection of migrant workers – especially low-skilled
migrant workers in sectors such as agriculture, construction and domestic work, migrant
women and young persons – from abuse and discrimination and to reduce decent work
deficits. Paying specific attention to the protection of these migrant workers is also the
best way of protecting national workers, thereby preventing “social dumping”. Much
attention is also needed on fostering labour mobility that can ensure proper jobs and skills
matching to better meet labour market needs and enhance economic productivity.
199. Poor governance of labour migration between countries in migration corridors and
within regions has tended to increase the social and economic costs for workers and
business. Such governance, however, can be more effective only when strong labour
market institutions exist in countries of destination and social partners are more robustly
engaged in migration dialogue. Improving cooperation between countries at the bilateral

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and regional levels, in collaboration with social partners, would help to build migration
regimes that reduce these costs. The most critical areas for this cooperation concern the
protection of workers’ rights; fair recruitment processes; improved matching of workers
with available jobs, including by establishing skills standards and skills recognition
systems; and enhancing coordination of social security.
200. Strengthening labour market institutions: Labour market institutions are key tools to
develop sustainable migration regimes across the globe. Guaranteeing equality of
treatment for men and women migrant workers with nationals, eliminating dual labour
markets for migrants and non-migrants, and ensuring that migrants can fulfil their human
development potential at destination and origin requires robust and well-functioning
labour market institutions which devote specific attention to the needs and interests of
migrant workers. It is also important to align active labour market and employment
policies, and other policies, with migration policies to ensure that labour migration,
whether incoming or outgoing, responds better to a country’s skills needs.
201. Strengthening guidance on bilateral agreements: Bilateral agreements can be useful
tools to support fair and effective labour migration governance if they incorporate
provisions aligned with international labour standards. However, as the discussion has
shown, there are significant concerns about the compatibility of bilateral labour migration
agreements with these standards. Constituents have indicated that further work in this area
would be warranted, and that, in particular, further and more updated guidance would be
required, as proposed by the CAS in its review of the 2016 General Survey. 1
202. While many elements essential to meeting ILO standards and good practice are
included in the model agreement annexed to Recommendation No. 86, guidance is needed
to take account of the changing landscape of labour migration and governance, including
the larger significance of the private sector in recruiting migrant workers. The institutional
aspects of bilateral labour migration agreements pose further challenges to ensuring
effective implementation, transparency and monitoring across migration corridors, and the
role of social dialogue. Other important concerns are raised regarding changing patterns
in the mobility of women migrant workers, and how best to include social security
provisions in the absence of dedicated social security agreements. The role of bilateral
labour migration agreements in enhancing human resource development generally and
skills development for migrant workers in particular is an additional question that would
benefit from further guidance. 2
203. The Office could engage more in development of the capacities of public
employment services to provide integrated and quality services to all jobseekers, with
particular attention to inclusion of both migrants and refugees in the labour market.
Moreover, it could assess the role and activities of labour inspection services in enforcing
labour legislation in respect of all migrant workers, and particularly those in irregular
situations, and their access to justice, including effective and easy-to-use complaints and
dispute settlement mechanisms. The Office could also examine the extent of migrant
worker organizing and involvement in collective bargaining processes, in view of the
implementation of target 8.8 of the 2030 Agenda calling for the protection of the labour
rights of all workers, including migrant workers.

1Outcome of the discussion by the CAS of the General Survey concerning the migrant workers instruments, ILC,
Provisional Record No. 16-1, 105th Session, 2016, para. 106(12).
2See also the recommendations in Wickramasekara: Bilateral Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding on
Migration of Low Skilled Workers: A Review, Geneva, July 2015, p. 48.

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204. Strengthening participation of the social partners: Enhancing participation of the

social partners in regional economic communities and regional consultative processes and
in consultations between regions holds promise for improving labour migration
governance. This can build on the social partners’ engagement at the national level. As
discussed in Chapter 4, their participation is weak in many regions and in interregional
corridors, in part due to a lack of capacity of employers’ and workers’ organizations.
Strengthened participation, however, is emerging in some regions which provide good
practice models. Constituents may wish to consider how to improve the participation of
the social partners in regional migration processes, and the role of the Office in this regard,
including in building constituents’ capacity for more effective engagement.
205. Finally, the ILO could support more concerted and targeted public awareness-raising
and educational programmes on non-discrimination and the contribution of migrant
workers to development, underscored in the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and
Migrants and the 2030 Agenda, and engage more closely in the Secretary-General’s global
campaign to counter xenophobia, endorsed by the New York Declaration. 3

2. Promoting fair recruitment migration corridors

206. As the discussion has indicated, given that recruitment is the first step in establishing
an employment relationship, instituting fair recruitment processes within migration
corridors is essential for the protection of men and women migrant workers. It is also
important to the interests of businesses seeking a level playing field and improved
productivity from workers, and in terms of enhanced development outcomes for migrant
workers and their families, as well as for origin and destination countries.
207. The principles and guidelines for fair recruitment adopted by the ILO are a good step
forward in bringing together the many different areas of ILO standards and good practices
that are emerging in the field. The guidelines are at an early stage of implementation, but
it is clear that more dissemination and monitoring of their impact will be needed. The
discussion demonstrates, however, that a number of outstanding issues remain. These gaps
include the scope and definition of recruitment fees and costs, and the role and
responsibility of workers’ organizations in the area of recruitment. These were noted as
areas for future ILO work during the tripartite meeting of experts. Constituents may
therefore wish to examine these gaps and to determine what actions at this stage would be
needed to address them.
208. In addition, as noted in this report, protecting migrants requires the fulfilment of
commitments under Sustainable Development Goal targets 8.8 on decent work and
10.7 on orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people. A critical
indicator identified by the UN (10.7.1) calls for the measurement of recruitment costs. Yet,
the dearth of data on recruitment suggests that tackling this issue requires more robust
commitment to and investment in data collection and monitoring: one reason why the ILO
and the World Bank are now devising an appropriate methodology. This will be an
important consideration for the Global Migration Compact, and an area which the
constituents may wish to examine.
209. Moreover, the Fair Recruitment Initiative could be deepened and strengthened
through the involvement of a wider range of partners and interventions, such as through
closer cooperation with the IOM and the World Bank, that pilot the design and
implementation of fair recruitment migration corridors based on a no-fees/costs approach.

3UN: New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, General Assembly, 71st session, A/RES/71/1, 3 Oct. 2016,
para. 14. See also the “Together” campaign at: http://refugeesmigrants.un.org/together.

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The keen interest of development partners in this area could be harnessed to contribute to
this objective.

3. Improving statistics and data for

evidence-based policy-making
210. This report has highlighted that harmonized data is critical to realizing successful
labour migration and mobility and that this is particularly relevant for improving regional
governance. The regional economic community level is a very pertinent and reasonable
scale for harmonization of data and statistics, as their member States will often share
similarities in statistical collection methods and an interest in specific indicators. There
are several new databases being developed at this level with ILO assistance. However,
reluctance to share border control data and disparities in resources, frequency of surveys
and statistical coordination mechanisms remain major obstacles to better harmonization
of data and to regional integration.
211. The ILO could make a significant contribution to data deficits by instituting a more
consistent and regular updating of the 2015 global and regional estimates on migrant
workers, and deepening the information collected, particularly in respect of sectors where
both highly skilled and low-skilled migrants are employed. Special attention could be
given to collection of data relating to working conditions and wages, as well as social
protection coverage, in sectors (such as agriculture, construction, manufacturing and
mining) in which migrant workers face specific challenges. The ILO’s work on developing
an international standard on labour migration statistics that would enable the systematic
collection of data and ensure data comparability within and across regions is particularly
important. The surveys on measuring labour migration costs, including the costs at
destination in respect of the remuneration, conditions of work and access to social
protection of migrant workers, should also be continued, with the involvement of workers’
and employers’ organizations, and in partnership with the World Bank and other member
agencies of the Global Migration Group.

6.2. Suggested points for discussion

212. The purpose of this general discussion is for the ILO’s constituents and the Office to
examine trends in labour migration and related governance challenges and discuss their
implications for the ILO’s future work on labour migration, with reference to the specific
themes of this report and the emerging global debate on migration governance. The results
of the discussion should lead the Organization to confirm or adjust its priorities
accordingly. On the understanding that there is broad diversity among migrant workers,
and that women and youth represent a large proportion of them, constituents may wish to
bear this in mind when discussing the following questions:
1. What are the principal opportunities and challenges presented by labour migration
governance at the global, regional, bilateral, national and local levels in the
realization of social justice for a fair globalization?
2. How can coordination and cooperation between ministries of labour and other
relevant government entities dealing with migration (for example, ministries of the
interior, foreign affairs and development planning) be enhanced nationally, across
migration corridors and regions, and at the global level? How can cooperation with
other international agencies, including with the Global Migration Group, be
deepened and made more effective?

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3. How can social dialogue on labour migration be strengthened at the local, national,
bilateral, regional, interregional and global levels?
4. Are the ILO’s existing normative and policy frameworks concerning bilateral
agreements and fair recruitment sufficient to address current and future challenges
related to the governance of labour migration and mobility, also in light of ongoing
global discussions? What further action would be needed to overcome these
challenges and to complement these frameworks?
5. What actions should the ILO’s constituents and the Office take to reflect ILO
concerns and responses, as identified in this discussion, including those concerning
labour migration data, in ongoing global migration debates, particularly those on the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the related Sustainable
Development Goals?

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