Join the fifth and last of our regional event series: Tuesday 18 May, 09:30 (CEST), covering South Asia, South-East Asia & the Pacific. The last regional webinar focuses on labour migration schemes and their potential for development in countries of origin.
As part of the regional thematic event series taking place from March to May, on the 18 May 2021, 09:30-11:30 (CEST), EUDiF, the Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA) and the Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) are joining forces to host a public webinar covering South Asia, South-East Asian & the Pacific. The theme of the event is the potential of labour migration schemes for development in countries of origin.
We will kick off the event with a discussion of the findings about diaspora engagement in the region, based on EUDiF’s global mapping of diaspora engagement policies, practices and priorities around the world, which included 14 South and South-East Asian countries, as well as 12 Pacific countries.
Once we have set the scene, there will be a panel discussion to discuss the potential of labour migration schemes for development in countries of origin in the region, followed by questions and comments from the audience – come ready to get involved in the discussion!
Labour migration schemes & development
Diaspora engagement for development in the South and South-East Asian and Pacific regions is closely linked to labour migration, as illustrated by the fact that most countries in these regions initially approached diaspora engagement through safe labour migration laws and rights. In the Pacific region, seasonal work programmes constitute an important labour migration phenomenon; many countries have been encouraging labour migration for decades and supporting migrant workers abroad is a major part of what we see as diaspora engagement efforts.
The question guiding our event will be how the overlap between labour migration schemes and diaspora engagement approaches in South Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific can be better used to achieve national and regional development objectives.
Recommended reading
We have put together some interesting documents to prepare for this event. Of course you can access all 36 country factsheets for these regions via our library or compare countries directly using the interactive map, but now you can also learn about the region as a whole, thanks to our newly published overview on diaspora engagement in Asia. A regional analysis of diaspora engagement in the Pacific will be published soon.
Other events
This event is the last in a series of five regional thematic events organised in the first half of 2021. For each region we host a public webinar themed according to the trends highlighted by our global mapping. The public event then feeds into a government roundtable that enables peer-to-peer exchange on the theme and other shared regional interests.
This regional series, combined with the diaspora consultations we have organised across Europe, help us scale up the conversations on diaspora-engagement for development in advance of our first forum, which will be open to all those in Europe and our partner regions who are interested in diaspora and development.