Countries in the ASEAN region experience a wide range of problems in managing labor migration flows. There is a need for sharing experiences in policy, institutional arrangements, and research results among ASEAN countries because sharing country experiences is one of the better ways of gaining empirical knowledge on specific aspects of labor migration. In an effort to look at the varied experiences of six countries on migration management issues, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) implemented a project entitled "Different Streams, Different Needs and Impacts: Managing International Labor Migration in ASEAN" with the support of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) from July 2009 to December 2011.
This special volume of the Philippine Journal of Development (PJD) focuses on the major findings and recommendations of the project covering three labor-receiving countries--Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand; and three labor-sending countries--Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. Policy research institutions that have a track record of being players in domestic policy discussions were selected for each country. It is envisioned that research collaboration among these institutions will flourish into a continuing collaborative effort in the study of international labor migration issues in the ASEAN.