Policy Advisory
Independent, evidence-based policy advice for ministries and parliamentary committees, grounded in ILSI's frontline casework across active corridors.
Labour migration policy is often made with limited visibility into what actually happens to workers once they leave home. ILSI's policy advisory function exists to reduce that blind spot, using evidence from our own membership casework rather than assumption or anecdote.
Areas of advice
- Recruitment fee regulation and enforcement design.
- Pre-departure orientation standards and licensing of training providers.
- Reintegration and returnee investment policy.
- Corridor-specific risk assessment, including seasonal or sector-specific patterns ILSI observes through casework.
How advice is grounded
ILSI's advisory positions draw on our publications, our data hub of anonymised corridor indicators, and the direct input of our Advisory Council. Where we do not have sufficient evidence to support a claim, we say so rather than filling the gap with speculation — a principle we also hold to in our own governance.
Ministries, regulators and parliamentary committees can request a briefing on any thematic area or corridor, and see our policy briefs for shorter published analysis.
How this differs from lobbying
ILSI's policy advisory function is deliberately structured to be distinguishable from advocacy on behalf of a narrow interest. We do not accept funding conditional on advocating a specific policy position, our Advisory Council reviews positions before they are shared externally, and we are willing to tell a government partner that the evidence does not support a policy they favour, just as readily as when it does. Ministries can treat ILSI's advice as an independent technical input to their own decision-making, not as a case being made for a particular outcome.
Confidentiality of advice
Policy advisory conversations with a specific ministry are treated as confidential unless that government chooses to make them public, consistent with normal practice for technical advisory relationships. This allows ministries to explore difficult or politically sensitive questions candidly before deciding what, if anything, to take forward publicly. Where ILSI's evidence base includes findings a ministry may find uncomfortable, we would rather share that evidence directly and privately than let it surface only later, in a public report or through the press. This is, in practice, one of the clearest ways ILSI demonstrates the independence described in our legal status.