On July 12, Global Workers attended the Informal NGO Interactive Hearings at the United Nations headquarters in New York. The purpose of the meeting was for member nations to consult with NGOs and civil society in preparation for the General Assembly’s High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development in September.
Certainly, it is a positive development that the United Nations is placing greater emphasis on migration. What concerns Global Workers is the tenor of discussion, evident at the July 12 hearings. It appeared that the member states and the United Nation officials involved with migration are operating under a few assumptions that we would argue are not so acceptable.
First, migration is touted as positive for development. What is left out of the analysis is why migrants must leave their country to seek employment elsewhere. The majority of migrants today migrate out of necessity, not choice. Most migrants would not leave their home countries if they had the opportunity to earn a living wage. Lack of decent job opportunities at home is a sign of under-development exacerbated by gender and racial discrimination, corruption, and lack of equal opportunity, among other factors. Not many mothers choose to leave their children behind so they can be sure to have sufficient income to enroll them in school. But that is what many must do when faced with few options. It is unacceptable to let migration overshadow the development roadblocks, the push behind the migrant phenomena today. In actuality, migration is not a tool but a substitute for development.
Second, temporary worker programs are being heralded as the answer to labor shortages in countries of employment. The reality is that temporary worker programs, as they operate in various parts of the world, are in fact filling a permanent, not a temporary need. Using temporary workers to meet a permanent labor demand is a poor solution. What is sidestepped time and again is why countries of employment will not allow for workers to stay in their countries permanently to fill the ongoing labor need. Furthermore, there is little discussion about the effects of temporary migration on the workers themselves, labor standards in the countries of employment, and society as a whole in both the receiving and sending nations. It is irresponsible to assume that temporary migration is positive without fully exploring the ramifications. (The exploitative nature of temporary workers programs today will be explored in a future blog entry.)
The process leading up to the September High-Level is an important opportunity. The Secretary General is hoping to move the forward the migration debate. The July 12 hearings showed that a heavy burden is on the NGOs, civil society and migrants themselves to influence that debate so the end results are indeed positive for development.
In the United Nations processes described in the last entry (and the United States immigration debate I might add), there is virtually no discussion of portable justice—the right and ability of transnational workers to access justice for workplace wrongs in the country of employment once they have left that country.
Most migratory norms focus on the rights in the country where the migrants are physically present. But the migrants’ ability to vindicate rights violated in one state when they return home or move to a third state is an issue that has received little attention.
The UN Secretary General recognizes in his May 18 report on Migration and Development that “Labour rights are the mainstay in the prevention of exploitation and ought to be fiercely safeguarded.” But without addressing the significant absence of justice for transnational migrants the picture is incomplete and enforcement of migrant labor rights is illusory. It is unrealistic to shape a national regulatory scheme which mandates that global migrants must continue to be physically present within that nation’s borders—even after completion of job contracts—in order to benefit from its protections. For today’s global migrants this is truly inappropriate and unacceptable.
Businesses are global. Workers are global. Justice is not. This must change. Migrant workers must be guaranteed that they can enforce their labor rights from where ever they migrate in the world and that they will not be denied substantive protections because they leave the country of employment.
It is critical that the United Nations addresses and embraces this issue. If not migrant workers will continue to labor in the shadows of globalization.
Over the past year, Global Workers has leveraged opportunities to promote the issue of portable justice in the United Nations processes concerning migration.
No one entity within the UN system is responsible for migrants. Perhaps as a consequence there is a gap in protection and attention to migrant issues. The UN Secretary General has shown increasing concern for migrants and has generated important discussions around the issue. As part of this developing process, for the first time ever, the UN General Assembly will hold a “High-level Dialogue” in September 2006 to discuss the nexus between migration and development.
In preparation for the High-level Dialogue, entities involved with migration and the UN have been holding various activities. Global Workers has become increasingly active in the process.
In December 2005, Cathleen Caron, representing Global Workers, attended the United Nations Committee on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (Migrant Worker Committee) Day of General Discussion in Geneva. The Migrant Worker Committee oversees the state parties’ compliance with the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Migrant Worker Convention). The purpose of the meeting was to ask NGOs for input about the nexus between migrants and development in preparation for the High-level Dialogue. Global Workers attended to raise awareness about the importance of portability of justice, the term which characterizes the challenges migrants face in achieving transnational access to justice. Committee Members responded positively to the intervention and several pledged to raise the issue with Member States. Prior to the meeting, Global Workers submitted a report to the Migrant Worker Committee entitled “Global Workers Require Global Justice: The Portability of Justice Challenge for Migrants in the USA” (available on the publications page).
In May, the Secretary General issued a report on Migration and Development to frame the discussion at the High-level dialogue. Global Workers recently submitted comments on the report (available on the publications page).
Global Workers will next participate in Informal Interactive Hearings on July 12 at United Nations headquarters in New York. The objective of the hearings is for NGOs (non-governmental organizations), civil society and the private sector to interact with UN Member States and offer input for the September High-level Dialogue. This will also be an important opportunity to discuss transnational labor rights with NGOs and migrant groups from around the world.
The next blog entry will examine what is missing from the migration debate: transnational justice for migrants.