How Do People in Asia and the Pacific Migrate Legally for Work? An Overview of Legal Frameworks: GATS Mode 4, PTAs and Bilateral Labour Agreements

This paper examines the patchwork of multilateral, regional and bilateral legal instruments through which migrants from Asia and the Pacific currently legally cross borders in search of employment. It concludes that the existing frameworks are very inadequate: in almost all the multilateral and preferential agreements focusing predominantly on trade (GATS Mode 4 and Preferential Trade Agreement), countries have made binding commitments only with respect to the temporary entry of high-skilled service providers.