Strengthening social protection for ASEAN migrant workers through social security agreements
Looks at specific actions that ASEAN countries can take to strengthening the social protection of migrant workers within the region. Argues for the importance of agreements between countries to coordinate their social security systems in order to ensure that migrant workers and their families have access to the programs of the countries in which they are working.
Social security programs throughout the world. Asia and the Pacific
Excerpt] This second issue in the current four-volume series of Social Security Programs Throughout the World reports on the countries of Asia and the Pacific. The combined findings of this series, which also includes volumes on Europe, Africa, and the Americas, are published at 6-month intervals over a 2-year period. Each volume highlights features of social security programs in the particular region.
Developing Country Proposals for the Liberalization of Movements of Natural Services Suppliers
This chapter criticizes the mercantilist rhetoric of some of the initial proposals because they requested other countries to liberalize their imports without offering reciprocal and equivalent market-opening commitments. It notes the extreme caution of developed country offers and concludes that — even though ‘Mode 4’ appears to be the principal way in which developing countries might expect to reap market access benefits in services — there may not be much liberalization of ‘Mode 4 services’ during the Doha Round in view of, inter alia, the xenophobic European fears of permanent migration. Developing countries likewise continue to be restrictive on opening their labour markets for professional services of foreign workers, in contrast to their more liberal attitude vis-a-vis ‘commercial presence’ (Mode 3) of foreign services suppliers.