How do sectoral policies affect migration in Cambodia?

Sectoral policies in key areas for development, such as the labour market, agriculture, education, and financial services and investment can still affect migration decisions. The IPPMD household and community surveys incorporated a wide set of policy programmes in the four sectors to identify some clear links between sectoral policies and migration. This chapter reports on analysis of the ways in which policy programmes in these sectors in Cambodia influence people's decision to emigrate and to send remittances.

^Migration is inevitably influenced by policies in the country of origin. Most countries have a set of policies which directly target migration, such as those controlling who can enter the territory and under which conditions, and those aiming to facilitate the sending and receiving of remittances. However, policies not specifically targeted at migration can also have an influence on migration. The IPPMD project in Cambodia focuses on the policies in the sectors that are key to development and explored in Chapter 4: the labour market, agriculture, education, and investment and financial services.

Chapter 4 showed that the migration impacts on these four sectors vary. The policy context for each of these sectors in turn influences migration outcomes, such as the decision to emigrate and how remittances are used. To date, the impact of sectoral policies on migration remains largely unresearched. This chapter attempts to disentangle the link between sectoral policies and migration in Cambodia by examining a wide set of policy programmes in the four sectors (Table 5.1). This chapter is organised according to the four sectors under study. It first discusses how migration outcomes are affected by labour market policies, followed by policies governing agriculture, education and investment and financial services.

Table 5.1. Sectoral policies and programmes covered in the IPPMD project