BANGKOK - Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said at the Nikkei Asia Forum APAC 2026 in Bangkok on July 16 that mobility within ASEAN remains impeded, limiting the bloc’s ability to achieve deeper regional integration.

“We have not achieved real integration,” Sihasak said. He added that mobility remained impeded within ASEAN and argued that the bloc needed deeper economic integration. “Integration is the best way to promote peace and stability,” he said.

An International Labour Organization report using 2024 data estimated that 24 million citizens of ASEAN countries were international migrants. 

Around 7 million of those migrants, or about 30%, lived in another ASEAN member state. The remaining 17 million lived outside Southeast Asia, showing that most migration by ASEAN citizens continues to extend beyond the region rather than taking place between its members.

The figures cover international migrants rather than only people who moved for employment. Labour migration remains central to regional movement, however, with ASEAN countries serving as major sources and destinations for workers moving within Southeast Asia and to economies elsewhere in Asia and the Gulf.

Sihasak said ASEAN would also need to reach agreement more quickly as regional conditions change. “Sometimes consensus can be quite slow,” he said. “The world is moving very quickly.”