Labor Migration in Asia: Increasing the Development Impact of Migration through Finance
and Technology
This report documents the increase in labor migration in Asia and looks at how finance
and technology can aid its positive impact on home countries. As diasporas increase,
governments have reached out to citizens abroad to provide them with financial instruments.
Remittance channels have long been consolidated, but financial technology is changing
the ways in which migrants remit—reducing fees and opening opportunities for new actors.
One occupation driving labor migration, and incurring its own challenges, is work
in information technology (IT). This report examines some of the latest developments
in financial products and technology aimed at labor migrants from and in Asia, and
discerns the factors determining the success of mobile IT workers from India. The
four chapters in this report draw on issues raised and discussed during the Seventh
Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia: Finance and Technology to Increase the Positive
Impact of Migration on Home Countries, held in Manila on 18–19 January 2017. The event
brought together regional experts and policy makers and was co-organized by the Asian
Development Bank Institute, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development,
the International Labour Organization, and the Asian Development Bank.
The report’s introductory chapter reviews recent regional migration trends. Two statistical
annexes provide an overview of migration flows within Asia and between Asia and other
regions.
Published on April 04, 2018