Unethical practices continue to pervade migrant worker recruitment. There are risks that these will be exacerbated as workers’ lives become affected by a deepening climate crisis and worsening inequalities. Whose responsibility is it to pay attention to this impending risk? Forum for the Future’s Project Officer Sangam Paudel and Principal Sustainability Strategist Madhu Ardhanari explore where accountability lies in the migrant worker recruitment system.

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For migrant workers, their experience at the point of recruitment plays a strong role in shaping the rest of their employment. The recruitment journey, including arrival in the host country, interactions with their new employer and orientation processes in the workplace can define a worker's relationship with the company and their working conditions over the course of their employment. Unethical recruitment processes where workers pay high fees for their jobs can mean debt bondage, and having to endure poor working conditions while they pay off debts.

Efforts to tackle unethical recruitment within the broader realms of modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking dominate public policy and corporate action. Interventions have been growing, including regulation such as modern slavery laws, soft law standards from Employer Pays principles (whereby costs of recruitment are to be borne entirely by an employer) to zero recruitment fees, auditing tools, capacity building around worker rights to build worker voice, and training for recruitment agents.

Progress made, but barriers persist

Yet, despite the growing number of responsible recruitment-related services and tools and innovation in the space, the conditions that lead to debt bondage and consequent rights abuses remain entrenched. According to the International Labour Organisation, between 2016 and 2021, forced labour increased by 2.7 million people (a growth from 3.4 to 3.5 per thousand people) Asia and the Pacific has around 15.1 million forced labourers (at 3.5 per thousand people).

These numbers suggest that current attempts to tackle this challenge have not worked, or that the change they have created is not widespread enough to target the deep-set norms, incentives structures, and behaviours that keep unethical recruitment practices firmly in place.

If we are unable to get to the bottom of why responsible recruitment solutions have not yet achieved systemic change, the problem will become even greater. With key sectors such as garment manufacturing and agriculture facing labour shortages, failing to address this challenge will make it a key barrier to reconfiguring global supply chains towards resilience and future-fitness.

So, what’s holding back these solutions?

Existing solutions vulnerable to disruptions on the horizon

Climate breakdown and its impact of human health has considerable implications on migration, working conditions, and labour capacity. For instance, according to Verisk Maplecroft, Southeast Asia is the region set to experience the greatest loss in labour capacity due to heat stress, with a projected 16% decrease by 2045. Singapore faces the greatest potential decline with a projected 25% decrease, followed by Malaysia (24%), Indonesia (21%) and the Philippines (16%).

Similarly, restructuring of global supply chains and onshoring could dramatically change the geographies of manufacturing. This leaves manufacturing hubs and trade-reliant regions like Southeast Asia vulnerable, with workers being hit the hardest. The potential of new automation technologies and its impacts on sectors like manufacturing presents even more uncertainties and disruptions.

"Yet, despite the growing number of responsible recruitment-related services and tools and innovation in the space, the conditions that lead to debt bondage and consequent rights abuses remain entrenched."

Where current services and tools fall short are in that they do not account for these future disruptions, and thus might not be adaptive to how they impact upon migrant recruitment. Rather, they typically aim to ensure that workers do not pay steep recruitment fees, that retailers are accountable for ensuring this happens, or are designed to pressure recruitment agents in source countries towards business models aimed at minimising workers’ exposure to unethical practices.

Activating the agency of manufacturers and recruitment agents in tackling unethical recruitment

This is where manufacturers and recruitment agents can come in to make a difference. The current system of innovation around responsible recruitment solutions places brands and retailers as “makers” and manufacturers and recruitment agents as “takers” of solutions.

Brands and retailers are involved alongside policymakers, government, and civil society actors in designing norms, tools and frameworks around responsible recruitment. They then communicate to their suppliers that they are expected to undertake responsible recruitment practices and their compliance will be audited; manufacturers and recruitment agents are then expected to comply with these requirements.

This limited engagement of manufacturers and recruitment agents in the creation of services and tools that they are expected to implement acts as a barrier to their adequate adoption. Brands often set expectations on manufacturers based on demands from worker representative NGOs and consumers, and governments often set regulations without understanding the on-the-ground realities. For example, manufacturers often come up against situations involving irresponsible practices at the source country during the recruitment phase, which are outside their control, making the implementation of these requirements difficult.

Not giving these actors a central role in the design of interventions may also mean that they do not have the level of buy-in needed to actively make it succeed despite their proximity to the challenge.

"Acknowledging different perspectives in a constructive manner could contribute to both a systemic embedding of responsible recruitment practices in the near-term, and an approach that is resilient to future disruptions. It also moves us past a finger pointing exercise; when the system fails, we are all responsible and the only way forward is to build collective accountability."

On the other hand, activating the agency of manufacturers and recruitment agents could lead to transformative change for the sector. Manufacturers and recruitment agents are highly connected—transactionally, contractually, and relationally—to workers and a range of important actors in the worker recruitment ecosystem.

Where there is strong trust and the will to improve worker relations, these connections would equip them with insights, relationships, and influence to bring about change in the space.

Building collective accountability, agency and action

There is a real opportunity to build the agency and develop the potential of manufacturers and recruitment agents, who have been traditionally side-lined in changemaking around responsible recruitment. They play a critical role in mainstreaming responsible recruitment practices by proactively implementing pilots and testing what works and does not work, given their proximity and accountability to the workers.

However, as the landscape changes disrupt the current responsible recruitment sector, the solutions will need to be adaptive so manufacturers and recruitment agents cannot act alone. Different groups of actors based on their extensive experience view different elements as the barriers behind effective implementation.

How might we then build collective agency and accountability? This will require bringing together a diverse set of actors to build trust where it is warranted and develop agility in the face of long-term threats. Different groups also provide a diverse perspective on future environmental and social disruptions that might affect the sector.

Acknowledging different perspectives in a constructive manner could contribute to both a systemic embedding of responsible recruitment practices in the near-term, and an approach that is resilient to future disruptions. It also moves us past a finger pointing exercise; when the system fails, we are all responsible and the only way forward is to build collective accountability.

How we achieve that will make all the difference in how workers experience recruitment so that they can thrive in the long term.

Get in touch

Sangam Paudel and Madhu Ardhanari along with LiLin Loh are currently leading a project on The Future of Responsible Recruitment in Malaysia. If you'd like to know more, please get in touch with LiLin [email protected]