Labour Migration

International labour migration is defined as the movement of people from one country to another for the purpose of employment. Today, an estimated 164 million persons are working in a country other than their country of birth. Despite the efforts made to ensure the protection of migrant workers, many remain vulnerable and assume significant risk during the migration process.  

IOMs approach to international labour migration is to foster the synergies between labour migration and development, and to promote legal avenues of labour migration as an alternative to irregular migration. Moreover, IOM aims to facilitate the development of policies and programmes that are in the interest of migrants and society, providing effective protection and assistance to labour migrants and their families.

Indonesia is one of the world’s major source country of migrant workers, who primarily are employed in low wage sectors. Through skills development and remittances, Indonesian migrant workers contribute significantly to the sustainable development of Indonesia.  In 2018, Indonesian migrants remitted USD 11.2 billion, a record high for the country.

IOM Indonesia works with the Government of Indonesia and non-government partners to improve labour migration management in Indonesia through research, policy dialogue, capacity-building and community awareness-raising on safe migration, the risk of trafficking in persons and financial literacy.  These activities are envisioned to help those planning on overseas work make informed decisions, build realistic expectations of labour migration, and better anticipate risks and challenges throughout the migration process.