In the past decade or so, vulnerability has become a fairly prominent concept in human rights law. It has evolved from being an underlying notion to an explicit concept. This column takes stock of ...vulnerability's relationship to, and possible influence on human rights law, assessing the concept's potential and pitfalls. It focuses on the not altogether unrelated issues of migrants’ social rights and on the role of human rights in environmental protection. The discussion commences with a reflection on the potential of vulnerability to re-interrogate those aspects of the human rights paradigm that relate to environmental protection. The next section focuses on the potential of vulnerability to enhance migrants’ social rights within human rights law. Subsequently, it focuses on the pitfalls and the difficulties of the vulnerability concept. It concludes by offering an outlook for the future of the concept.
The article argues the necessity to increase attention to the implementation of migration policy in large cities and outlines the main areas of relevant activities. In Ukraine, as well as in the rest ...of the world, the largest cities are centers of attraction for both internal and external migrants. Rules on the arrival, residence of immigrants, access to the labor market, granting international protection, etc. are established by national law, but specific measures for their implementation take place at the local level. Despite this, the issue of migration is not always taken into account in urban development plans, and is often overlooked by local administrations. The need to develop measures to implement migration policy at the city level is due to the fact that the rapid pace of urbanization and migration, the intensity of which is increasing, pose new risks, but at the same time open new opportunities. The labor and intellectual potential of migrants, the ideas they bring and the money they invest are important factors in urban development. The importance of migration management in cities has grown especially due to the mass forced displacements caused by aggression of Russian Federation. The vast majority of the 1,5 million internally displaced persons forced to flee their former residence as a result of the events in Donbass in 2014 were city dwellers seeking refuge in cities. The concentration of the population in large cities will naturally increase during the recovery period after the end of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, not only at the expense of Ukrainian citizens but also foreigners, specialists and workers who will be involved in rebuilding the economy. Migration management in large cities is not limited to the implementation of the functions delegated to them from the central level, it should be aimed at ensuring the rights of migrants, functional and cultural integration into the urban environment, and using the potential of migrants to develop cities and enrich and diversify urban life. Implementation of the migration policy at the city level should be developed in several key areas, the main of which are ensuring the human rights of migrants, creating conditions for their inclusion in the urban community. Achieving the goals of the migration policy in a large city involves an integrated approach, institutional and resource provision, close cooperation between local authorities, civil society, business and migrants themselves.
The author of the article addresses to the problem of integration of third-country nationals in the European Union and provides a detailed analysis of the development of the concept of «civic ...citizenship». The establishment of the rights of legal immigrants in the European Union at the supranational level, despite the contradictory goals of the Commission and member states, brings a new quality to the common immigration policy of the EU. The main instrument for ensuring the rights of immigrants in the European Union is Directive 2003/109/EC concerning the status of third-country nationals who are long-term residents. The author highlights the role of supranational institutions (the Commission and the CJEU) in promoting the uniform application of the directive and guaranteeing the rights of legal immigrants in the European Union. The author notes that the EU long-term resident status can be considered as a step towards a post-national form of membership in the host community that overcomes the restrictive nature of national citizenship. However, despite the supranational regulation of legal immigrants’ rights in the EU, member states retain parallel national schemes and the right to impose integration conditions as well as they remain responsible for granting the EU long-term resident status.
The article contributes a critical analysis of the case law of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), reviewing the protection of migrants' rights in the Inter-American Human Rights ...System. Specifically, the article's aim is to scrutinise the possible constraints upon growth as regards the role played by the IACtHR. It examines the main drivers behind the evolution of the case law and the key principles laid down in emblematic cases with a view to answering this question. The article also discusses the articulation of a judicial dialogue between the IACtHR and its European counterpart, which has developed the jurisprudence on both sides. Evidence demonstrates that the IACtHR is being innovative in creating its own authentic judicial dialogue with national constitutional courts. Other regional human rights systems, such as the African system, could learn from this. Finally, the article identifies the success and the pitfalls in the approach taken to protect migrants' rights.
Policies on migrant workers are characterised by competing frameworks of governance that do not necessarily protect migrants. Despite their vulnerability, however, migrant workers also possess ...agential capacities. Guided by the concept of “fugitive witnessing”, I discuss excerpts from the book “Bantay-Salakay: Anthology of Short Stories by Domestic Workers in Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan” (Mga Bantay-Salakay: Antolohiya ng Maiikling Kuwento ng mga Indonesian Domestic Worker sa Singapore, Hongkong, at Taiwan), a collection of stories originally in Bahasa Indonesia and translated into Filipino. Specifically, I problematise how stories written by Indonesian domestic helpers reveal and negotiate varied aspects of migration. The paper concludes that stories of subaltern groups within the diaspora may serve as complex and discursive means to assess, interrogate and reform the contemporary phenomenon of labour mobility.0
Bordering processes take place through different means and are carried out by different actors. Laws and regulatory activities have a prominent place among border-drawing instruments: Their capacity ...to mobilise actors, allocate funds, and determine procedures and remedies make them a formidable and multifaceted bordering tool. It is therefore not surprising to notice that EU institutions have heavily relied on regulatory tools when the need to resort to new bordering processes emerged in the aftermath of the so-called migration crisis. This article delves into a particular (re-)bordering process emerging from the legislative proposals attached to the Commission’s 2020 New Pact on Migration and Asylum: the attempt to uncouple the duty to fully respect and protect fundamental rights from the reality of migrants’ presence on national territory. This objective is pursued by the proposed legislative package through non-entry fictions, capable of untangling the legal notion of “border” from its physical reality for the purpose of immigration law (only). The analysis of the relevant provisions provides the reader with a number of insights into the transformation of EU borders. First, borders (as defined by the law) are subject to a peculiar legal regime. Secondly, the legal notion of borders is increasingly independent of its physical/geographical correspondence. Thirdly, legal border lines are not linked to any place on the ground, but rather follow irregular migrants as they move, confining them to areas of less law, no matter their location.
This article explores how migrating via a strong or weak tie results in different outcomes for Ethiopian domestic workers in their migration to the Middle East. Few studies have examined this ...question. Ethiopian domestic workers are a good case for this analysis as networks are critical for providing information and support for live-in domestic workers in the Middle East. Migrating via a strong tie was expected to result in better migration outcomes. The results, however, suggested that migrating via a strong tie can provide support in some cases, but is not enough to guarantee protection to Ethiopian migrant workers in the Middle East.
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