Eight Countries Map New Regional Labour Migration Pathways

Subtitle: IOM-backed roadmaps cover seven flows from coffee harvests to bus driving.

In September 2025, a group of Salvadoran workers arrived in Costa Rica to fill pre-approved bus-driving positions. The deployment marks the first use of a regional labour-mobility mechanism originally built for agricultural work outside Central America's coffee belt, and it shows how bilateral coordination can move beyond harvest seasons.

The arrangement sits inside a wider push documented by the International Organization for Migration in its publication Strengthening Regular Labour Migration Pathways between Countries in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Eight countries — Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama and the Dominican Republic — have worked with IOM to analyse seven labour mobility flows and build country-specific roadmaps for each.

What is the programme trying to change?

The publication calls for "regular labour migration pathways" — agreed procedures between origin and destination countries that allow workers to cross borders with permits already in hand. According to IOM's World Migration Report 2024, nearly 70 per cent of international migrants worldwide are migrant workers.

IOM finds that the regional process produced "roadmaps … with concrete actions to improve processes and opportunities for labour mobility." By July 2025, IOM monitoring showed most countries had moved through preparation, design and negotiation. Some had reached pilot implementation. Larger-scale rollouts remained limited.

Which sectors and corridors are in scope?

Examples pulled from the IOM report:

• Belize: a pilot programme for temporary migrant workers in agriculture, hospitality and construction, drawing mainly from Guatemala.
• Honduras: consultations with coffee producers and migration officials to launch a possible temporary mechanism for Nicaraguan harvest workers.
• Mexico and Guatemala: a labour mobility pathway initially focused on tourism in Quintana Roo, with planned expansion to other southern Mexican states.
• Panama and Costa Rica: expanded cooperation to add new sectors and occupational profiles, building on the existing movement of Ngäbe-Buglé workers into Costa Rican coffee harvests.

The Salvadoran bus drivers illustrate the model at its most recent. IOM records that "the job offers existed before they traveled. Companies participated in the selection process. Governments coordinated the procedures, and the workers were able to travel with a job offer and work permit already approved."

What is SITLAM, and where does it fit in?

The roadmap work draws on five years of operating experience with Costa Rica's Migrant Labour Traceability System (SITLAM). Costa Rica launched SITLAM in 2020, during COVID-19 border closures, to register the temporary entry of agricultural workers — mainly from Nicaragua and Panama — for the harvests of coffee, sugar cane, citrus, melons and watermelons.

Workers carry an identification card with a QR code. Employers and authorities use it to verify entry, update status during the stay and confirm departure. IOM credits the system with contributing to "more orderly management of temporary labour mobility."

Costa Rica is now testing whether the same traceability model can support other sectors, including the Salvadoran drivers.

What obstacles remain?

The publication flags several gaps that limit take-up even where pathways exist:

• Workers and employers often lack clear information about permits and requirements.
• Different institutions handle separate parts of the process, and some steps still require physical documents or in-person visits.
• Workers trained abroad can struggle to have qualifications recognised in destination countries.
• Recruitment timelines remain long, complicating hiring for employers with urgent vacancies.

Priorities flagged by the eight countries include simplifying and digitising procedures, expanding public employment services, recognising foreign credentials, tightening labour inspection and improving labour-market data at sector level.

Who is affected?

IOM frames the roadmaps as relevant to:

• Workers in the region seeking employment abroad.
• Employers in sectors with documented labour shortages.
• Migration and labour ministries coordinating bilateral procedures.

The publication frames the long-term objective simply: "the goal is that when a job opportunity exists across a border, there is also a clear and regular pathway to reach it." Country-by-country timelines, pilot designs and bilateral arrangements are set out in IOM's full report.