APMM’s research on the enabling environment for organizing migrant workers in five countries in the Asia Pacific

In 2022, Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) conducting research on the enabling environment for organizing migrant workers in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Malaysia, Japan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. HKSAR, Malaysia, and Japan are mainly migrant workers receiving countries, while Indonesia and the Philippines are migrant workers sending countries. 

Internationally, International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted Convention 087, or the Convention on the Freedom of Association and Protection of Right to Organize in 1948 and take effect in July 1950. HKSAR and Malaysia are yet to ratify ILO C087,  and already ratify by the Philippines, Japan, and Indonesia.

The right to organize, or Freedom of Association (FoA), is one of the core labor standards of the ILO and is upheld by ILO Convention 087. When exercising this freedom, workers form their unions and organizations to be able to protect and promote their rights and interest, oftentimes against the overwhelming power of business and transnational corporations.

Migrants workers, including migrant domestic workers, are spread across Asia-Pacific, with the highest concentration in more developed economies of the region, namely HKSAR, Japan, and Malaysia. Most of the origin countries of migrant domestic workers are the developing economies of Indonesia and the Philippines.

Labor laws, including rights and privileges for workers, in receiving countries, are nuanced according to citizenship, with host workers enjoying a different set of rights compared to migrant workers.

Looking into the internal and external factors that enable or discourage migrant domestic workers from exercising ILO C087 in HKSAR, Japan, and Malaysia will help civil society organizations (CSOs) and migrant workers concerned groups in addressing policy gaps in the full exercise and enjoyment of migrant workers if ILO C087 in the following areas of attention.

The understanding can also be adopted by migrant workers who are already organized or for those who are planning to build their organizations. With a high level of precarity for their member (e.g. contract terminations), existing migrant organizations need a steady flow of new members to their organizations to replenish those they have lost, or else their organizations face dissolution. 

Those who are returning migrants to Indonesia and the Philippines can also be guided in understanding the existing policy environment regarding FoA in their home countries and can assist them in their efforts to build organizations for returned migrant workers. 

Read the research report here.