The multi-directional nature of labour migration flows has resulted in an increasing number of countries having become both senders and receivers of regular and irregular migrants. However, some ...countries continue to see themselves primarily as senders and so ignore their role as a receiving country, which can have negative implications for the rights of migrants in their territory. Using the example of Indonesia, which is State Party to the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Their Families, this article demonstrates that irregular migrant workers in this country have the legal right to protection against labour exploitation even when they work despite the government's prohibition on employment. The article discusses the 'right to work' and how international human rights law has translated it into the 'right to protection from labour exploitation' for irregular migrants in Indonesia. By way of two case studies about the Indonesian government's handling of irregular migrants, it shows how it prioritises enforcement of the immigration law over labour and employment laws much like countries that have not ratified the ICRMW. It also draws attention to legal protection gaps that emerge for asylum seekers when they are recognised to be genuine refugees.
Abstract
The Mobility Partnerships between the European Union and third countries have a negative image as they are often viewed as a tool of migration control rather than a flexible instrument to ...enhance mobility. Yet so far scholars have predominantly investigated the asymmetric negotiation of Mobility Partnerships as well as their limited consequences for migrant rights in EU Member States. What is often overlooked is that these partnerships can also influence the development of the legal and policy frameworks of third countries in ways that go beyond what is foreseen at the time of the negotiation of the instruments. This article combines a comparative legal analysis of the development of the legal frameworks in Morocco and Cape Verde with an empirical study of the implementation of Mobility Partnerships' projects in relation to national migration strategies. The analysis demonstrates that Mobility Partnerships, despite their non-binding nature, have legal and policy relevance for these third countries with regard to the regulation of migration, asylum, human trafficking and even labour law.
This article investigates an undocumented migrants' protest that took place in Italy in 2010-2011 and examines the relational dynamics within the movement behind this mobilization. Although there is ...growing literature exploring different aspects of migrant activism and border struggles, the binomial migrant and politics has mostly been interpreted in terms of migrants as the objects of politics rather than the subjects. During the nine-month protest a similar argument was used by authorities who recurrently stated that the migrants were remotely controlled and manipulated by their Italian advocates. Without underestimating differences in social and cultural capital and power relations within the movement, this article seeks to challenge this approach and problematize the relationship between the actors who organized and participated in the protest. Drawing on 27 in-depth interviews with documented and undocumented migrants and migrant rights activists, the article aims to show how relational dynamics go beyond the subordination-domination dichotomy.
Very little is known about activism, as it relates to the issue of migration in South Africa. Yet, migration policy and migration governance are increasingly becoming important to states like South ...Africa, which, 22 years into democracy, finds itself being home to the second highest number of migrants in Africa. This paper fills this gap by exploring multi-level policies and advocacy experiences of activists working on migration in a post-colonial context of South Africa through the lens of key contestations around the trafficking discourse in South Africa from 2005 to 2018.
Migrant health assessments (HAs) consist of a medical examination to assess a migrant's health status and to provide medical clearance for work or residency based on conditions defined by the ...destination country and/or employer. We argue that better linkages between health systems and migrant HA processors at the country level are needed to shift these from being limited as an instrument of determining non-admissibility for purposes of visa issuance, to a process that may enhance public health. The importance of providing appropriate care and follow-up of migrants who "fail" their HA and the need for global efforts to enable data-collection and research on HAs are also highlighted.
While there has been much debate on Singapore’s migration policies, a ‘black box’ continues to surround policymaking decisions. This article examines the dynamics of migration policy reforms in ...Singapore, using the case study of the mandatory weekly day off policy for migrant domestic workers. Designing our analysis around the three ‘Is’ – ideas, interests and institutions – we argue that the inclusion and formalisation of migrant rights in the policy sphere entails the framing of migrant rights in a manner that appeals to Singapore’s institutional logics and cultural repertoire; prioritising the needs and interests of citizens in the policy calculus; and institutional readiness and conviction to the cause.
Although the Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers (CRMW) is a 'core' human rights treaty, it is poorly ratified. Previous studies have elucidated the barriers to ratification; in this article ...we focus on the factors that generate incentives to ratify. We argue that states that ratify this treaty desire to strengthen their relationships with their own emigrants and their citizens at home who advocate for emigrant protections, not to protect the rights of immigrants residing in their own country. The political incentives to strengthen this relationship depend on the costs and benefits that inward migration and outward migration bring to the state. The benefits of emigration are captured by the size of remittance flows, the net immigration position of the country, and by the ratio of unskilled to skilled emigrants, whereas the costs are reflected in the size of the immigrant stock. When the benefits of migration are substantial and the costs of potentially providing rights are small, states will be more likely to ratify this agreement. These determinants are distinctive from the explanations proffered for other human rights treaties. Our statistical analysis is consistent with the theoretical arguments that we make.
European umbrella organisations that promote migrant and refugee rights seek to influence EU policy-making in the context of Europe’s ‘migration and refugee crisis’. From a functional representation ...perspective, their legitimacy rests on being representative of large constituencies that actively participate in their work. Yet past research on national migrant rights organisations underscores that, due to their diversity, priorities within the movement are not uniform. Different scholars come to different conclusions regarding the cleavages that define the movement. Moreover, it remains unclear how these cleavages impact participation in European umbrella organisations. This paper investigates these questions by empirically examining the cleavages among the membership base of two EU umbrella organisations: the European Council on Refugees and Exiles and the European Network Against Racism. Data come from a content analysis of member organisations’ websites and interviews with directors of European umbrella organisations. Factor analysis techniques are used to assess empirically the different dimensions that structure diversity, examining several fault lines: identity/ideology, target population and worldview. The results point to cleavages that can differentially affect participation in the umbrella and present strategies used by leaders of umbrella organisations to encourage more active participation by certain types of under-represented member organisations.
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