ABSTRACT
In Southeast Asia, the connection between migration and development can mean different things in varied national settings. For some countries, most notably the Philippines, exporting workers and receiving the financial remittances they send back home has been a longstanding and well-established source of foreign exchange, government revenue and livelihood support. In other places, such as Vietnam, emigrations have occurred in waves and have created an overseas diaspora that is increasingly supporting livelihoods and investments in the homeland. In several cases, however, such as Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, international labor migration is predominantly an in-bound flow, with large (and sometimes undocumented) populations of workers who have moved across borders within the region. Here, low-wage and sometimes highly exploited migrant laborers have been central to the competitiveness and development of their host economies.
