Low-wage Labour Migration Regimes in Asia: Lessons from Across the Governance Spectrum (Routledge Studies in Asian Diasporas, Migrations and Mobilities)

This book explores how low-wage labour migration policies in seven Asian economies affect millions of migrant workers.It identifies two contrasting regulatory approaches that bookend a governance spectrum, offering an original theoretical framework for understanding which policies heighten workers’ vulnerability to exploitation and which improve their chances of success. The book argues that the regulatory choice to either invest in and manage, or privatise and outsource, key labour migration governance functions has a material impact on outcomes for workers.Specifically, the data demonstrate that migrant workers in destination economies in Asia that take a government-managed approach pay lower recruitment costs, enjoy greater labour market mobility and earn higher wages as they benefit from greater labour law protections.Conversely, migrant workers in employer-managed regimes pay higher recruitment costs, have more limited labour market mobility, earn less and are more vulnerable to m