Low-wage Labour Migration Regimes in Asia: Lessons from across the governance spectrum

Arwen Joyce

Date: June 17, 2025

Time: 5:30PM-7:00PM

Venue: Room 301, Building 10, Sophia University

Format: In person only / No registration required

East and Southeast Asia contain some of the world’s largest migration corridors, including for low-wage labour migration. The seven largest destination economies in the region employ almost nine million documented low-wage migrant workers. Protecting their rights and improving the outcomes they experience is an urgent policymaking challenge. This talk highlights insights from a forthcoming book that seeks to improve our understanding of Asia’s biggest labour migration regimes by identifying policy approaches that are the most beneficial for migrant workers. The book argues that government-managed regimes produce better outcomes for migrant workers because they are better able to protect their rights and interests, but private capital is a powerful negotiator in this space that can quickly erode progress towards more worker-protective policies.

Dr. Arwen Joyce is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Law at the University of Leicester, UK. Her research interests include economic migration, labour law and legal education. She was previously an Adjunct Professor of Law at Singapore Management University and worked in private practice as a capital markets lawyer in London and Singapore. She holds a BA from the University of Virginia, a JD cum laude from Georgetown University, an LLM with merit from the London School of Economics, and a PhD in Law from the University of Leicester. She is a non-practicing member of the New York Bar Association and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her first monograph, Low-wage Labour Migration Regimes in Asia: Lessons from across the governance spectrum, will be published by Routledge.

This talk is organized by Ilju Kim (Assistant Professor of Sociology, Sophia University).