1. Laissez-faire: A country of origin can leave it completely up to the market to decide how and where labour is to be employed and on what conditions and not intervene at all in the recruitment process. It does not impose any standards and the terms of the employment contracts are the concern only of the worker and the foreign employer.

2. Regulated & State- Managed System: The State of origin adopts laws and regulations governing recruitment of nationals for employment abroad. The State may sets up state organizations to recruit and place workers abroad but also allows private recruitment agents to be the players within its domain. The State may have an active foreign employment policy with possible interventions to influence demand (such as opening up new and better destinations for migrant workers) and supply (such as improving the skills of migrant workers or imposing barriers to exit of scarce skills); interventions to regulate recruitment (including being directly involved in recruitment, introduction and placement of migrant workers, penalties for agency violations) and interventions to protect workers, etc.

3. State-monopoly: The State assumes full and sole responsibility for organizing labour migration. Under such a policy regime, there is no room for the operation of private intermediaries in the recruitment of nationals and their deployment in foreign countries.