TRIANGLE in ASEAN

Sixth Technical Meeting of Focal Specialists on International Labour Migration Statistics in ASEAN

This meeting discusses international labour migration data statistics and brings together representatives from national governments, the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Statistics, and ILO.

The International Labour Migration Statistics (ILMS) Database in ASEAN has been published annually since December 2014 as a special collection on the ILO’s central database, ILOSTAT, as well as through the AP-Migration web-portal.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) is organizing the Sixth Technical Meeting of Focal Specialists on International Labour Migration Statistics in ASEAN on 17 September 2020. Due to the current travel restrictions, the meeting will be convened online. The meeting is supported by the ILO TRIANGLE in ASEAN programme, which is a partnership between the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), the Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and the ILO.

Objectives of the sixth technical meeting of Focal Specialists on International Labour Migration Statistics in ASEAN are to:
1. Share and discuss global and regional updates on collection of labour migration statistics and SDG reporting;
2. Review current status of ILMS database in ASEAN;
3. Discuss lessons learned from the 7th round of ILM collection in ASEAN, and identify ways to further improve data collection and sharing among ASEAN Member States;
4. Discuss next steps in improving quality and gender disaggregation of data sources at country level; and
5. Prepare for the 8th round of ILMS data collection.

The Meeting will bring together representatives from national governments, the ASEAN Secretariat, ASEAN Statistics, and ILO. Member states’ participants will ideally be the original (or prospective future) focal specialists from each country, including one or both of the Ministry of Labour and another Ministry responsible for data collection (e.g. National Statistical Office, Office of Immigration, etc.).

The ILMS database was initially created in 1998 by ILOSTAT, EUROSTAT, UNSD and UNECE, and regularly updated to include data from 94 countries until 2006.

The ILO’s ASEAN TRIANGLE reinvigorated the ILMS database for ASEAN in 2012 and has since then continuously highlighted the strategic importance of labour migration statistics in the region and beyond.

In July 2018, ILO Statistical Department’s (STATISTICS) decided to restart collection of ILMS at global level. Reinvigoration of the ILMS database at global level is important both for SDG monitoring, national planning, and global evidence base on labour migration. The 2019 round of ILMS collection, which is the 7th round of collection in the ASEAN region, was launched by ILOSTAT on 2 September 2019. The 8th round of collection in the ASEAN region will be launched in September 2020. Statistics from official sources, mainly labour force surveys, censuses and administrative datasets, are collected on International Labour Migration Questionnaires (ILMQ) developed by the ILO.

Collection of ILMS data in ASEAN is done annually with the help of a network of ILMS focal specialists in national institutions in all ten ASEAN Member States. This network of focal experts was established in 2013, and has since met in 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Resource Materials:

AP Migration: Migration Statistics
ILOSTAT