Manila – ILS researcher Miraluna S. Tacadao completes her paper titled, “Portability of Social Security Benefits in the APEC Region: An Examination of Social Security Agreements,” which will be presented in the DOLE Research Conference this December.

Tacadao’s research, which is part of the ILS Working Paper series, anchors on strengthening migrant worker protection, entering into social security agreement is a viable option to ensure portability of social security entitlements. Her research examines the portability of social security benefits within the contextual and operational frameworks of social security agreements as a significant means of harmonizing social protection, resulting to equality of treatment between origin and destination countries. It also examines migration profiles, social security systems and labor market characteristics are factors to be considered that affect the agreement scope .

The research showed an analysis of the agreements that the Philippines has with other states particularly with Japan and Canada, as well as findings of an online survey with Filipino Overseas claimants of Social Security benefits as respondents.

Based on the findings, the paper concludes that forging a bilateral or multilateral agreement with other countries is currently the best practice to achieve portability. The Social Security Agreement provides building blocks within countries for a more cohesive and prosperous region. As the APEC region is composed of migrant sending and receiving countries, uniform treatment irrespective of countries of origin on rights and entitlements are practiced under all participating member-economies. In the absence of conclusion of SSAs, there are measures that must be supported to ensure protection of migrant workers’ social security rights.

The paper will be presented during the 5th DOLE Research Conference, organized by the ILS, which continues to serve as a venue for researchers to highlight their research findings in contribution to evidence-based decision making across the Department.

The Institute for Labor Studies (ILS) is the policy research and advocacy arm of the Department of Labor and Employment. For more information on this story, please contact the Advocacy and Publications Division at 527-3490.