Migrant labor helping reduce Asian poverty: ADB

from ABS CBN News

Agence France-Presse

Asia's 54 million migrant laborers are helping reduce widespread poverty, and the region's governments should make it easier for them to move and work, the Asian Development Bank said Wednesday.

In its annual outlook report, the Manila-based ADB said migrant workers in Asia sent back 108.1 billion dollars 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 labor markets, promote orderly and managed labor flows, and minimize 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 labor, especially from Southeast Asia, the bank said.