Advancing the Right to Freedom of Movement in the AEC Framework:What the AEC can Learn from the EU

• Author: Panthip Pruksacholavit
• Position: Chulalongkorn University - Thailand
• Pages: 474-501

e Indonesian Journal of International & Comparative Law

ISSN: 2338-7602; E-ISSN: 2338-770X

http://www.ijil.org

© 2014 e Institute for Migrant Rights Press

rst published online 22 April 2014

474

is article was presented at the 1st Asian Conference on Politics, Economics and Law

(the International Academic Forum, Japan, Nov.23, 2013). e author would like to

take this opportunity to record her appreciation to all of the participants in the event for

their valuable discussions and comments. e author also owes many thanks to Kathryn

Swiss for her assistance in editing. Special gratitude is also extended to Pranoto Iskandar

and the anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier draft.

ADVANCING THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF

MOVEMENT IN THE AEC FRAMEWORK

WHAT THE AEC CAN LEARN FROM THE EU

PANTHIP PRUKSACHOLAVIT

Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

E-mail: p.panthip@hotmail.com

e AEC, scheduled to be established in 2015, will promote skilled labor mobility

among the ASEAN Member Countries. ere is convincing evidence that establishing

the AEC (along with the skilled labor mobility provisions) could bring benets to

the ASEAN Member Countries. Yet some criticism of the AEC’s potential ecacy

exists. However, surprisingly few scholars have debated about the prociency of the

provisions. is article neither examines the costs and benets of the AEC agreement

nor provides conclusions as to which professions should or should not be included

in the agreement. Rather, this article examines whether the skilled labor mobility

provisions introduced by the AEC are pragmatic. e focus here also centers on

indicating potential obstacles to skilled labor mobility. e main argument of this

article is that the skilled labor movement provisions of the AEC will facilitate skilled

workers who have already planned to seek employment and relocate to another

country. Yet notwithstanding this facilitation, this article holds that the provisions do

not provide many incentives to encourage mobility among other skilled workers who

still reside in their home country. us, the labor mobility rate among the ASEAN

Member Countries will not substantially increase because of these provisions. is

is because the national legal systems, (which are not compatible with the mobility

policies), discourage worker migration because of barriers such as lack of recognition

of qualications, insucient information provided for workers, and the nature of

Panthip Pruksacholavit

ADVANCING THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT IN THE AEC FRAMEWORK: What the AEC Can Learn From The EU

475

social structure. Facilitation for the practical aspects of labor mobility is needed

in order to successfully increase the eectiveness of the provisions. e theoretical

approach utilized in this project is comparative methodology. is project utilizes a

legal analysis as well as subsequent critical comparison to put forward solutions to

increase the eectiveness of the labor mobility provisions.

Keywords: Skilled Labor Mobility, Labor Movement, ASEAN Economic Community

(AEC), ASEAN, Comparative Law

I. INTRODUCTION

It is evident that economic integration can lead to greater economic

benets, especially in countries with weak bargaining power. is is

because integration has the potential to eliminate barriers to trade and

investment as well as the potential to coordinate monetary and scal

policies. ere are currently numerous regional economic integrations,

such as the European Union (EU), the North America Free Trade Area

(NAFTA), the African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West

African States (ECOWAS) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations

(ASEAN). ASEAN is ageo-political economic organization consisting of

ten countries located inSoutheast Asia.1 It aims to increase investment

and economic opportunities within the region and enable members to

compete with regional competitors, such as China and India, and other

countries outside Asia.2 In particular, ASEAN attempts to build a single

market with a strong central executive comparable to the EU, with a well-

developed body of laws and dispute settlement mechanisms similar to

those of NAFTA.

In the past, the development of the ASEAN Economic Region was

not as competitive as in other regions. is is due to factors, such as

the limitation of production capacity and supply, a low distribution

of services from service suppliers, as well as weakness of professional

capabilities. To solve these problems, ASEAN plans to establish the

1. ASEAN was formed on August 8, 1967, by Indonesia, Malaysia, the

Philippines,Singapore andailand. Since then, membership has expanded to

includeBrunei,Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia,Laos, and Vietnam.

2. See A  S A N (ASEAN), http://www.asean.

org/ (last visited Aug. 1, 2013).