In 2007, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed on an ambitious goal to fast track the creation of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 2015 which would transform the ASEAN region into a single market and production base. This transformation would be based on five core components, including a free flow of skilled labour.

In A ‘Freer’ Flow of Skilled Labour within ASEAN: Aspirations, Opportunities and Challenges in 2015 and Beyond’, authors Guntur Sugiyarto and Dovelyn Rannveig Agunias argue that in practice, the AEC has not made much progress towards full labor mobility even among high skilled migrants. Instead, they argue that the steps taken so far have only facilitated the movement of high skilled labour, rather than allowing a free flow of skilled mobility.

This issue in brief is the eleventh in the series of policy papers by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) and the International Organization for Migration’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific that offer succinct insights on migration issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region today. To read earlier briefs in the series, visit: IOM Online Bookstore or Migration Policy Institute.