Migration and Growth in East and South-East Asia

East and South-East Asia face major demographic changes over the next few decades as many countries’ labour forces start to decline, while others experience higher labour force growth as populations and/or participation rates increase. A well-managed labour migration strategy presents itself as a mechanism for ameliorating the impending labour shortages in some EastAsia Pacific countries, while providing an opportunity for other countries with excess labour to provide migrant workers that will contribute to the development of the home country through greater remittance flows. While migration would be unable to offset the economic impacts of the declining labour forces in the countries with shrinking populations, a more flexible migration policy, allowing migrants to respond to the major demographic changes occurring in Asia over the next 50 years, would be beneficial to most economies in the region in terms of real incomes and real GDP over the 2007-2050 period. Such a policy could deeply affect the net migration position of a country. Countries that were net recipients under current migration policies might become net senders under the more liberal policy regime.