Migration reform can spur economic growth in member nations of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), experts have said.

They pushed for better policies for Thailand, which accounts for more than half of all ASEAN migrants, at a forum this month in Bangkok at which a World Bank report "Migrating to Opportunity: Overcoming Barriers to Labor Mobility in Southeast Asia" was formally presented.

Intra-regional migration in ASEAN increased significantly between 1995 and 2015, the report says, turning Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand into regional migration hubs with 6.5 million migrants – 96 percent of the total number of migrant workers in the region. One benefit is that about 62 billion US dollars in remittances were sent to ASEAN countries in 2015. 

Sending countries, such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, gain from remittances that help lift families and communities out of poverty, says World Bank economists Sudhir Shetty and Mauro Testaverde in a published article that also notes that receiving nations benefit by filling labor shortages.

"Yet many of the region's migration policies remain blunt, ineffective and costly," the economists say.  

The flow across borders is expected to grow even faster as the ASEAN Economic Community, launched in 2015, pursues deeper integration.

But there are signs that things may be slowing. The Nikkei Asian Review reported in March that tighter restrictions on foreign labor in Malaysia and Thailand have pushed out millions of migrant workers, driving up wages and threatening a growth model reliant on freedom of movement and cheap labor.

In June last year, Thailand introduced regulations to fine employers of unregistered foreign workers, the financial newspaper reported. Malaysia, which has arrested many illegal migrants and those employing them, introduced a tax this year on companies with any illegal foreign workers.

Among the barriers to labor market mobility the report by World Bank specialists cites is overly restrictive migration rules about the number and type of migrants, costly and lengthy procedures, high recruitment costs and lack of access to protections of rights of migrant workers.

Shetty, the bank's chief economist for the East Asia and Pacific Region and Testaverde, who is attached to its Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice, note that estimates suggest that as much as 50 to 60 percent of all migrants in Thailand and Malaysia lack proper documentation, reflecting the fact that most of them are low-skilled.

"While such informal migration exposes migrants to abuse, it dominates the region's major migration corridors, including those between Thailand and Cambodia; Laos and Myanmar; and Indonesia and Malaysia," they wrote. 

The report by the bank argues that this is the time for the countries of Southeast Asia to ensure that their migration policies better match the region’s evolving economic needs and help spur growth.

For recommendations, it says that Thailand should work to formalize undocumented migrants, make entry procedures less costly and rethink immigration policies such as levies. Singapore is being encouraged to continue to improve protections for migrant workers and to build public trust that the migration system is looking after the welfare of local workers while meeting the country's needs as a high-income country. Malaysia is advised that it should collaborate more closely with both employers and sending nations.  

The Phillippines, a sending country, receives praise for having "a highly developed support system for migrant labor that is a model for other nations."

In a speech at the Bangkok forum, Adul Sangsingkeo, the Thai minister of labor, acknowledged the benefits that labor mobility in ASEAN brings to the citizens of both receiving and sending countries. 

"However, a migration system requires collaboration between not only sending and receiving countries but also stakeholders in order to bring about the greatest gains from labor migration,” a bank release quoted Sangsingkeo as saying.

To achieve maximum results, Shetty and Testaverde agree that more ambitious action is needed to facilitate the movement of unskilled labor across the region while regulating migration more effectively. "In this way, ASEAN countries can both reap a growth dividend and protect the most vulnerable workers who choose to migrate," they say.