MANILA - ASIA'S 54 million migrant labourers are helping to reduce widespread poverty, and the region's governments should make it easier for them to move and work, the Asian Development Bank said.
In its annual outlook report on Wednesday, the Manila-based ADB said migrant workers in Asia sent back US$108.1 billion (S$149.5 billion) in remittances to developing regions in 2007, or more than one-third of the global total.
'Migration does raise income levels for many poor,' it said. 'International migration and remittances contribute importantly to poverty reduction in Asian countries.'
Despite those benefits, regulations are still 'quite restrictive in most countries and are certainly much less liberal than those governing the movement of goods', the ADB said.
'Regional governments need to cooperate more to further open up their labour markets, promote orderly and managed labour flows, and minimise the transaction costs of migrant workers.'
Among the benefits, it said, migration also helps to reduce unemployment pressures in countries with high population growth and lagging economies.
Demographic and structural changes meant Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore have become important destinations for Asian migrant labour, especially from South-east Asia, the bank said.
Set up in 1966, the ADB provides development aid to dozens of Asian and Pacific countries, where it says nearly 1.9 billion people still live on US$2 (S$3) a day or less. -- AFP
