Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T10:34:25.956Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Recruitment Fees, Indebtedness, and the Impairment of Asian Migrant Workers’ Rights

from Part I - Migration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 November 2021

Tesseltje de Lange
Affiliation:
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Willem Maas
Affiliation:
York University, Toronto
Annette Schrauwen
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Get access

Summary

This chapter examines the impact of recruitment fees and debt in intra-Asian labour migration. It explores the connection between financial decisions taken during recruitment at origin and the legal protection of migrants at destination. The link between these temporal and spatial dimensions is often overlooked in literature, particularly from a legal perspective. The chapter analyses data on Asian countries to characterize existing recruitment models and the policy responses to address them. The purpose is to design a comprehensive response to the negative externalities of the prevalent recruitment model in Asia. The chapter presents legal perspectives and conceptualizations applied to recruitment fees in literature. It identifies the recruitment fees’ structure and presents the typology of fees charged to migrant workers. It analyses the consequences of migration financing methods in the creation of a cycle of debt. Finally, it reflects on how migration-related debt is shaped and which forces contribute to its lastingness. In its concluding remarks, the chapter advocates a holistic approach, encompassing the legal and economic features of the recruitment process.

Type
Chapter
Information
Money Matters in Migration
Policy, Participation, and Citizenship
, pp. 93 - 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abella, M. and Martin, P. (2014), Migration Costs of Low-skilled Labor Migrants: Key Findings from Pilot Surveys in Korea, Kuwait and Spain (draft), Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2017-05/KNOMAD_TWG3_Report%20on%20Migration%20Cost%20Pilot%20Surveys%20May%2011_final%20%28002%29_1.pdf.Google Scholar
Afsar, R. (2009), Unravelling the Vicious Cycle of Recruitment: Labour Migration from Bangladesh to the Gulf States, Working Paper No. 63, International Labour Office.Google Scholar
International, Amnesty (2017), Turning People Into Profits: Abusive Recruitment, Trafficking and Forced Labour of Nepali Migrant Workers, London: Amnesty International. www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/ASA3162062017ENGLISH.PDFGoogle Scholar
Andrees, B., Nasri, A. and Swiniarski, P. (2015), Regulating Labour Recruitment to Prevent Human Trafficking and to Foster Fair Migration: Models, Challenges and Opportunities, Geneva: ILO.Google Scholar
Arif, G. M. (2009), Recruitment of Pakistani Workers for Overseas Employment: Mechanisms, Exploitation and Vulnerabilities, Working Paper No. 64, International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Bastia, T. and McGrath, S. (2011), Temporality, Migration and Unfree Labour: Migrant Garment Workers, Manchester Papers in Political Economy, Working Paper No. 6.Google Scholar
Bélanger, D. (2014), ‘Labor Migration and Trafficking among Vietnamese Migrants in Asia’, The Annals of the American Society of Political and Social Science, 653(1): 87106.Google Scholar
Bhoola, U. (2016), Report of the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, Including its Causes and Consequences, Geneva: Human Rights Council, United Nations, Doc. A/HRC/33/46.Google Scholar
Cambier, G. (2012), The Relation between Forced Labour and Trafficking in Human Beings, Tilburg: Tilburg University, http://arno.uvt.nl/show.cgi?fid=128387.Google Scholar
Chee, Liberty L. (2015), Power as Practice in Global Governance: Recruitment Agencies and Domestic Worker Migration in Southeast Asia, Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore.Google Scholar
Czaika, M. and Hobolth, M. (2014), Deflection into Irregularity? The (Un)Intended Effects of Restrictive Asylum and Visa Policies, International Migration Institute Working Paper No. 84, University of Oxford.Google Scholar
Davidson, J. O. (2013), ‘Troubling Freedom: Migration, Debt, and Modern Slavery’, Migration Studies, 1(2): 176195.Google Scholar
Encinas-Franco, J. (2016), ‘Promising Practices Emerging from the Recruitment Industry in the Philippines’, in Calenda, D. (ed.), Case Studies in the International Recruitment of Nurses: Promising Practices among Agencies in the United Kingdom, India, and the Philippines, Geneva: International Labour Organization, 6389.Google Scholar
Farbenblum, B. (2017), ‘Governance of Migrant Worker Recruitment: A Rights-Based Framework for Countries of Origin’, Asian Journal of International Law, 7(1): 152184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Farbenblum, B. and Nolan, J. (2017), ‘The Business of Migrant Worker Recruitment: Who Has the Responsibility and Leverage to Protect Rights?’, Texas International Law Journal, 52(1): 477496.Google Scholar
Frantz, E. (2013), ‘Jordan’s Unfree Workforce: State-Sponsored Bonded Labour in the Arab Region’, The Journal of Development Studies, 49(8): 10721087.Google Scholar
Friebel, G. and Guriev, S. (2006), ‘Smuggling Humans: A Theory of Debt-Financed Migration’, Journal of the European Economic Association, 4(6): 10851111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Mascareñas, B. (2012), Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain: Markets, Citizenship and Rights, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.Google Scholar
Gardner, A., Pessoa, S., Diop, A., Al-Ghanim, K., Trung, K. L., and Harkness, L. (2013), ‘A Portrait of Low-Income Migrants in Contemporary Qatar’, Journal of Arabian Studies 3.1:117.Google Scholar
Ghayur, S. (2016), From Pakistan to the Gulf Region: an Analysis of Links between Labour Markets, Skills and the Migration Cycle, Islamabad: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
Goh, C., Wee, K. and Yeoh, B. S. (2016), ‘Who’s Holding the Bomb? Debt-financing Migration in Singapore’s Domestic Work Industry’, Migrating Out of Poverty – Research Programme Consortium, Working Paper 38.Google Scholar
Gustafsson, D. (2005), Debt-financed Migration and Debt-bounded Sexual Exploitation: A Study from an Economic Perspective, Master thesis, Department of Economics, University of Lund.Google Scholar
ILO (2015a), Fair recruitment in international labour migration between Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council: realizing a fair migration agenda – labour flows between Asia and the Arab States, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific; ILO Regional Office for Arab States.Google Scholar
ILO (2016a), The cost of migration: what low-skilled migrant workers from Pakistan pay to work in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.Google Scholar
ILO (2016b), General principles & operational guidelines for fair recruitment, International Labour Office, Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work Branch (FUNDAMENTALS); Labour Migration Branch (MIGRANT).Google Scholar
ILO (2018), Findings from the global comparative study on the definition of recruitment fees and related costs, Background paper for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting of Experts on Defining Recruitment Fees and Related Costs (Geneva, 1416 November 2018), International Labour Office, Conditions of Work and Equality Department.Google Scholar
ILO (2019), Report of the Meeting of Experts on Defining Recruitment Fees and Related Costs (Geneva, 14–16 November 2018), Governing Body, 335th Session, Geneva, 1428 March 2019, (GB.335/INS/14/2).Google Scholar
IOM (2003), Labour Migration in Asia: Trends, Challenges and Policy Responses in Countries of Origin, Geneva: IOM.Google Scholar
Jägers, N. and Rijken, C. (2014), ‘Prevention of Human Trafficking for Labor Exploitation: The Role of Corporations’, Northwestern Journal of International Human Rights, 12(1): 4773.Google Scholar
Jones, K. (2015), For a Fee: The Business of Recruiting Bangladeshi Women for Domestic Work in Jordan and Lebanon, Working Paper No. 2/2015, International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Jordan, A. (2011), Slavery, Forced Labor, Debt Bondage, and Human Trafficking: From Conceptional Confusion to Targeted Solutions, Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law Issue Paper 2, Washington College of Law, American University.Google Scholar
Jureidini, R. (2014), Migrant Labour Recruitment to Qatar, Report for Qatar Foundation Migrant Worker Welfare Initiative, Bloomsbury/Qatar Foundation Publishing.Google Scholar
Jureidini, R. (2016), Ways Forward in Recruitment of ‘Low-skilled’ Migrant Workers in the Asia-Arab States Corridor, ILO white paper, ILO Regional Office for the Arab States.Google Scholar
Jureidini, R. and Moukarbel, N. (2004), ‘Female Sri Lankan Domestic Workers in Lebanon: A Case of ‘Contract Slavery’?, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30(4): 581607.Google Scholar
Kara, S. (2017), Modern Slavery: A Global Perspective, Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
LeBaron, G. (2014), ‘Reconceptualizing Debt Bondage: Debt as a Class-Based Form of Labor Discipline’, Critical Sociology, 40(5): 763780.Google Scholar
Lee, P. W. Y. and Petersen, C. J. (2006), Forced Labour and Debt Bondage in Hong Kong: A Study of Indonesian and Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers, Centre for Comparative and Public Law, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong, Occasional Paper No. 16.Google Scholar
Lindquist, J. (2010), ‘Labour Recruitment, Circuits of Capital and Gendered Mobility: Reconceptualizing the Indonesian Migration Industry’, Pacific Affairs 83(1): 115132.Google Scholar
Martin, P. (2016), ‘Reducing Worker-Paid Migration Costs’, in Howe, J. and Owens, R. (eds.), Temporary Labour Migration in the Global Era: The Regulatory Challenges, Hart Publishing: 377392.Google Scholar
Martin, P. (2017), Merchants of Labor: Recruiters and International Labor Migration, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mantouvalou, V. (2016), ‘Temporary Labour Migration and Modern Slavery’, in Howe, J. and Owens, R. (eds.), Temporary Labour Migration in the Global Era: The Regulatory Challenges, Hart Publishing: 223240.Google Scholar
Newland, K. (2019), ‘The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: An Unlike Achievement’, International Journal of Refugee Law, 20(20): 14.Google Scholar
Oh, Y. A. (2016), ‘Oligarchic Rule and Best Practice Migration Management: The Political Economy Origins of Labour Migration Regime of the Philippines’, Contemporary Politics, 22 (2): 197214.Google Scholar
Pellerin, H. (2015), ‘Global Foreign Workers’ Supply and Demand and the Political Economy of International Labour Migration’, in Talani, L. S. and McMahon, S. (eds.), Handbook of the International Political Economy of Migration, Cheltenham & Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing, 145166.Google Scholar
Platt, M., Baey, G., Yeoh, B. S., Choon, Y. K. and Lam, T. (2017), ‘Debt, Precarity and Gender: Male and Female Temporary Labour Migrants in Singapore’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 43(1): 119136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahman, M. M. (2011a) Recruitment of Labour Migrants for the Gulf States: The Bangladeshi Case, ISAS Working Paper No. 132, National University of Singapore.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahman, M. M. (2011b), Does Labour Migration Bring about Economic Advantage? A Case of Bangladeshi Migrants in Saudi Arabia, ISAS Working Paper No. 135, National University of Singapore.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rijken, C. (2015), ‘Legal Approaches to Combating the Exploitation of Third-Country National Seasonal Workers’, The International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, 31 (4): 431452.Google Scholar
Rijken, C. (2018), ‘When Bad Labour Conditions Become Exploitation: Lessons Learnt from the Chowdury Case’, in Rijken, C. and de Lange, T. (eds.), Towards a Decent Labour Market for Low-Waged Migrant Workers, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 189206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruhs, M. (2013), The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Sijapati, B. (2015), Women’s Labour Migration from Asia and the Pacific: Opportunities and Challenges, Issue in Brief No. 12, IOM Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the Migration Policy Institute.Google Scholar
Sijapati, B., Lama, A., Baniya, J., Rinck, J., Jha, K., and Gurung, A. (2017), Labour Migration and the Remittance Economy: The Social-Political Impact, Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility (CESLAM).Google Scholar
Sobieszczyk, T. (2002), Risky Business: Debt Bondage International Labour Migration from Northern Thailand, Paper presented at the IUSSP Regional Population Conference on Southeast Asia’s Changing Population in a Changing Asian Context, Bangkok.Google Scholar
Surak, K. (2013), ‘Guestworkers: A Taxonomy’, New Left Review 84:84102.Google Scholar
Szulecka, M. (2012), ‘The Right to be Exploited: Vietnamese Workers in Poland’, in Anker, C. V. D. and Liempt, I. V. (eds.), Human Rights and Migration: Trafficking for Forced Labour, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 161192.Google Scholar
Testaverde, M., Moroz, H., Hollweg, C. H., and Schmillen, A. (2017), Migrating to Opportunity: Overcoming Barriers to Labor Mobility in Southeast Asia, Washington: World Bank Group.Google Scholar
UNODC (2015), The Role of Recruitment Fees and Abusive and Fraudulent Recruitment Practices of Recruitment Agencies in Trafficking in Persons, www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/2015/Recruitment_Fees_Report-Final-22_June_2015_AG_Final.pdf.Google Scholar
Varona, R. (2013), License to Exploit: A Report on the Recruitment Practices and Problems Experienced by Filipino Domestic Workers in Hong Kong, Alliance of Progressive Labor (APL-SENTRO).Google Scholar
Verité (2012), An Ethical Framework for Cross-Border Labor Recruitment: An Industry/Stakeholder Collaboration to Reduce the Risks of Forced Labor and Human Trafficking, www.verite.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ethical_framework_paper.pdf.Google Scholar
Vlieger, A. (2011), Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia and the Emirates: A Socio-Legal Study on Conflicts, New Orleans: Quid Pro Books.Google Scholar
World Bank (2017a), Indonesia’s Global Workers: Juggling Opportunities and Risks, The World Bank Office Jakarta, The World Bank Group.Google Scholar
World Bank (2017b), Sustaining Resilience: East Asia and Pacific Economic Update (April), Washington, DC: The World Bank.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×