Labour recruitment and brokerage in South-South migration: The case of MOUs between Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia

This project investigates the role of Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), a type of bilateral labor agreement, in processes of labor brokerage and recruitment in Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia.

Within this region, migration processes are often heavily mediated, but so far there has been little invesigtation of the MOUs that guide these processes.

In doing so, it looks at both the different interests that go into the formation of these agreements, as well as looking at the effects that they have on processes of labor brokerage and recruitment.

It does this through interviews with state, regional, and interest group actors as well as through interviews with labor brokers and recruiters.

Furthermore, as all the countries examined are members of ASEAN, it also considers the role of regional actors in these processes.

Even though migration is often noted as being an important contributor to economic development, labor migrants are often placed in precarious situations, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

As MOUs are a common tool of governing labor migration in Southeast Asia, this research therefore helps develop our understanding of how these agreements are formed, and what effects they have.

This research therefore has the potential to contribute to knowledge about how to build better migration systems that can support both economic development and worker safety.