ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the previous chapter by exploring how Mekong governments, UN agencies, and NGOs have enthusiastically embraced different forms of regulation, ranging from formal pathways for unskilled labour migrants (as discussed in the previous chapter), the introduction of licensing systems for migrant recruitment agencies, and biometric scanning of migrants. The chapter shows how such state-sanctioned techniques for legibility are increasingly justified on humanitarian grounds in the name of safety and pre-emptive protection of migrant workers. The chapter examines how state-sanctioned regulation of labour migration unfolds by placing specific focus on recruitment agencies and various government bodies that are meant to regulate them. The chapter shows that rather than formalizing and creating autonomous “free” migrants, regulatory processes produce dependencies and extra-legal recruitment chains. Despite these policy interventions attempting to reduce migrants’ reliance on intermediaries, the chapter shows how brokers flourish in these environments in direct contradiction with formal policy.
