[[abstract]]The phenomena of intemational labor migration (ILM) and foreign direct investment (FDI) could be best understood as integral pts of economic development. In a parallel paper (paper 1 of this session), the relationship among FDI, ILM and economic development was summarized in a framework of the Investment-MigrationDevelopment Path (IMDP). Nevertheless, the IMDP approach assumes an ideal situation where there are no impediments to FDI or ILM. Both FDI and ILM arise to equilibrate disparities in factor rewards driven by different levels of economic
development across countries. In reality, ILM and FDI are constrained by complex economic, institutional and policy variables. The interactions of these variables jointly determine the shape and position of the two curves of net FDI and net ILM in the IMDP. Most Westem developed countries experienced problems related to ILM and FDI policies during various stages of economic growth. To a large extent, the unprecedented upsurge of the two factor movements in East and Southeast Asia since the mid-1980s has also reflected the working of the market mechanism. Differential
levels of economic development and different speeds of economic growth lead to growing income disparity as well as diverging labor market transformations. The “pull" and “push" forces are generated to equalize capital and labor rewards across the markets in different countries. The Philippines and Vietnam are two major countries in Southeast Asia which have taken rather different approaches to economic development. In the part two decades, Vietnamese govemment has been aggressive in attracting FDI and achieved impressive results. On the contrary, the Filipino authorities have been more concemed about ILM in the sense of actively facilitating the export of their workers abroad. The country has successfully gained huge amount of remittances from ILM. This paper will first examine the experiences in FDI and ILM in relation to economic development of the Philippines and Vietnam in the context of the IMDP. It will further attempt to
develop some propositions about how different development ideologies and policies taken by the two countries have shaped their respective FDI and ILM trajectories. The effects of atrracting FDI and facilitataing ILM will finally be examined by assessing the degress in reducing the umemployment pressure for each of the two coumtries.[[sponsorship]]Tamkang University; National Science Council; Minisry of Foreign Affairs; Ministry of Education[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencetkucampus]]淡水校園[[conferencedate]]20110331~20110331[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]新北市, 臺
