Introduction

Abstract

The cross-border movement of people, consistent with the increased integration of economies and ongoing changes in the international division of labour, is an essential component of economic globalisation. Yet while trade and financial flows are welcomed by nations, people flows raise concerns about possible excessive influxes of migrant workers and irregular migrants and the potential erosion of national sovereignty. This has resulted in more restrictive immigration policies, evolving border control regimes and barriers. The sharp increase in labour mobility has also coincided with the growth of a migration industry, the establishment of official recruitment agencies and the increasing role of private entrepreneurs and middlemen providing all sorts of services to migrant workers in exchange for fees. Paradoxically, although the economic incentives for people to move have become stronger, immigration restrictions and intensified border controls in labour-exporting countries now constitute the principal barrier to international labour migration, International migration is also entwined with human rights and has become a major domestic and international political issue, particularly for Europe and North America. This issue is debated mainly in the context of western countries, and population movements in Southeast Asia/Asia are less well understood.