When Battlefields become Marketplaces: Migrant Workers and the Role of Civil Society and NGO Activism in Thailand

The vast majority of migrant workers in Thailand are employed predominantly in low‐paying occupations commonly described as “3‐D jobs” (dangerous, dirty, and difficult). Currently, there are nearly two million documented and undocumented migrant workers, mostly from neighbouring Burma, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Cambodia, employed in various industries, including domestic service, throughout the country. While over half a million migrants are officially registered to work in the country, both documented and undocumented migrant workers remain unprotected primarily due to the lack of concrete measures to monitor, implement and enforce laws regarding working and living conditions. Regardless of where they are employed, migrant workers face common problems: low wages; harmful working conditions, poor living conditions; discrimination and harassment, the threat of arrest and deportation; and lack of access to basic resources such as medical care and legal assistance. Based on preliminary research conducted in the summer of 2005, this article looks at the situation of migrant factory and domestic workers in Thailand and explores the ways in which local activists, NGOs, community‐based organisations, and international bodies have been looking to assist and protect migrant workers. Successful migrant workers’ struggles and ongoing efforts of mobilization have been made possible with the help of these support groups, and raise the possibility that union and NGO activity have the potential to improve the situation of migrants in Thailand. This also raises the question of whether advocacy groups should be acting in lieu of the state rather than alongside the state, especially when it appears that they are fulfilling their civic duty as enforcer and monitor of migrant workers’ problems.     

Illegals and expulsion in Africa: the Nigerian experience

The persistence and widespread nature of undocumented migration in Africa is due to 1) the absence of barriers or the arbitrariness of national frontiers, 2) the large stretch of unpoliced borders, 3) ignorance about the existence of borders, and 4) the absence or inadequacy of migration laws and regulations in both the countries of origin and destination. The free movement of persons in Africa has a long tradition. Over a large part of Africa, international migration is regarded as an extension of internal migration. The free movement of persons across frontiers in Africa historically has been facilitated by the cultural affinity of communities divided by international boundaries and the colonial policies of both the French and British. The "migration" of nomads pays little regard to international borders and is largely undocumented, even in national censuses. The frontier workers along the borders of Uganda and Kenya where members of the same extended family live on both sides of the borders and commute daily are statistically regarded as international migrants, without regard for the sociocultural realities of the African situation. Political independence substantially altered the erstwhile free movement of persons across African countries as national governments enacted immigration laws and regulations. The newly independent countries wanted to reserve employment for nationals. The Sahelian drought, internal strife in Chad, the deteriorating economic situation in Ghana, the oil-lead economic boom in Nigeria, and the treaty on the free movement of people in the community accelerate the tempo of undocumented migration in West Africa. Also, migration laws and regulations are not always rigorously enforced. Expulsion and deportation are common policy measures directed at illegal migrants resident in African countries. In Nigeria, the events leading to the expulsion of aliens were gradual, but in all cases, the actual expulsion--or decisions to expel--are usually sudden and dramatic.     

Turning the Immigration Policy Paradox Upside Down? Populist Liberalism and Discursive Gaps in South America

A paradox of officially rejecting but covertly accepting irregular migrants has long been identified in the immigration policies of Western immigrant receiving states. In South America, on the other hand, a liberal discourse of universally welcoming all immigrants, irrespective of their origin and migratory status, has replaced the formally restrictive, securitized and not seldomly ethnically selective immigration rhetoric. This discursive liberalization has found partial translation into immigration laws and policies, but contrary to the universality of rights claimed in their discourses, governments reject recently increasing irregular south–south migration from Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean to varying degrees. This paper applies a mixed methodological approach of discourse and legal analysis and process tracing to explore in how far recent immigration policies in South America constitute a liberal turn, or rather a reverse immigration policy paradox of officially welcoming but covertly rejecting irregular migrants. Based on the comparative analysis of Argentina, Brazil and Ecuador, the study identifies and explains South American “populist liberalism” in the sphere of migration. We highlight important implications for migration theory, thereby opening up new avenues of research on immigration policy making outside Western liberal democracies, and particularly in predominantly migrant sending countries.     

The Care/Security Nexus of the Humanitarian Border: Assisted Return in Norway

While Assisted Return and deportation are frequently viewed as two different return policies, the first represented as humanitarian and the latter as enforcement, this article argues that there is a continuum between these policies and that they form part of humanitarian border enforcement. Drawing on policy document analysis and interviews with NGOs and with irregular migrants, the article provides a two-level analysis by examining how AR is presented from the Norwegian governmental perspective and how it is experienced from the Afghan migrant perspectives. The article argues that the government bases its AR policy on the need to maintain the credibility and sustainability of the asylum system, as part of fighting crime, while presenting it as a humanitarian solution. For irregular migrants, however, the experienced lack of proper asylum procedures delegitimizes return policies. Overall, the performative aspects of humanitarianism in return policies contribute to depoliticizing return.     

The right to stay: challenging the policy of detention and deportation

The aim of this article is to shed light on the situation of refugees (formally designated as asylum seekers) and undocumented migrant workers, who are among the most vulnerable inhabitants of Europe. Both groups face the threat of detention and deportation. The normative framework, which consists of legal standards and residential institutions, will be critically examined. Despite international standards for respecting the human rights of refugees and undocumented workers, policies of detention and deportation and the mass rejection of asylum claims leave little hope for the empowerment, autonomy and social inclusion of these persons. Instead of a straight-forward argument for closing down all detention centres and putting an end to forcible deportations, the article investigates small scale structural possibilities for inclusive – non-selective – responses to these non-citizens.     

Unauthorized Migrants and the (Il)Logic of “Crime Control”: A Human Rights Perspective on US Federal and Local State Immigration Policies

Immigration control, widely regarded the sovereign right of nation states, has often been pursued at the expense of civil and human rights. More than a century ago, nativists legitimated a punitive approach to immigration control that treated migrants’ rights as secondary by branding millions of newcomers to the United States as a “dangerous class”. In many ways, recent policies similarly criminalize immigrants and deploy crime control strategies in response. This article reviews the most significant of these policies at the federal and local state level, including: border security measures, detention and deportation, the 287(g) program, anti‐immigrant city ordinances, and the Arizona law (SB1070). Each initiative has been framed as necessary to protect American citizens from serious crime. We focus on four ways in which these policies violate human rights: first, border security measures that result in migrant deaths violate the right to life; second, detention and deportation violate the right to liberty; third, detention and deportation punish unlawful residents as though they were guilty of criminal rather than civil violations of the law, imposing penalties that are arbitrary and disproportionately harsh; and fourth, local state policies to counter illegal immigration encourage racial profiling, a practice that violates the right to freedom from discrimination.     

A level playing field for migrant entrepreneurs? The legal and policy landscape across EU and OECD countries

Migrant entrepreneurship has been recognized as a form of integration in the country of destination and a viable alternative of decent and sustainable employment for migrants. Laws and policies can create barriers or support migrants who start a business in the country of destination. Despite their importance, these laws and policies have received scant attention from academic scholarship. By applying the mixed embedded approach, this article analyses the institutional and policy framework for migrant entrepreneurs in European Union (EU) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and how this framework varies according to the migrants’ individual legal status and gender. In order to do so, this article draws upon the findings of two different studies conducted on the topic. The first one analyses the national institutional framework for migrant entrepreneurs of these countries. The second study consists of a review of measures to foster migrant entrepreneurship in the same sample of countries. On the one hand, this article shows that the institutional framework restricts access to self-employment for some categories of migrants (e.g. based on their legal status). On the other hand, a wide range of measures are now available to support migrant entrepreneurs. However, these measures treat them as a rather homogeneous group. These findings suggest that the fact that some migrants are less engaged in self-employment or face more difficulties may be explained by the lack of institutional opportunities and policy support.     

Battling for Survival, Battling for Moral Clarity: "Illegality" and Illness in the Everyday Struggles of Undocumented HIV+ Women Migrant Workers in Tel Aviv

Undocumented migrant workers living with HIV/AIDS in Israel, like their counterparts elsewhere, are doubly abject due to their lack of legal status on one hand and their ill health on the other. Unlike Israeli citizens living with HIV/AIDS, who can access an array of state funded treatments and support services, undocumented migrant workers living with HIV/AIDS are marginalized both by the state's exclusive immigration regime and by its efforts to shake off responsibility for their health needs. At the same time, HIV treatment and care are generally unavailable in migrants' countries of origin. Despite the state's exclusionary orientation and in contradiction of official policies, certain forms of HIV treatment are available to undocumented migrants through the day‐to‐day efforts of a small array of activist Israeli NGOs, (state‐employed) doctors, and state officials. The tension between these simultaneous, oppositional processes of exclusion and inclusion generate a “gray area”— a zone of competing values, claims and interests‐ in which undocumented migrants living with HIV/AIDS and these other stakeholders search for new options and possibilities while continually taking pains to protect their own varied, and often competing, interests. Actors thus constantly bargain with laws, health policies, and one another in a collective battle not only over migrants' chances of survival, but also over the rationality and the morality underlying the state's “and their own” decisions and choices. Anchored within this complex, indeterminate zone, the present article draws upon ethnographic field research conducted among undocumented HIV+ migrant women in Tel Aviv to explore some of the stakes, mechanisms, and outcomes of these complicated, high stakes negotiation processes.     

The Role of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants

The position of Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants was established in 1999 by the Commission on Human Rights. During the short period since her appointment, the Special Rapporteur has directed her attention to examining ways and means to overcome obstacles impeding the full and effective protection of the human rights of migrants, and also examining difficulties for the return of migrants who are undocumented or in irregular situations. This schedule has involved visits to governments and the dissemination of information on the legal framework and aspects of the mandate designed to explain the complexity of migration. The Special Rapporteur calls for increased efforts to ensure success of the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Durban, South Africa, in 2001. She also encourages those governments which have not yet ratified the International Convention to take the necessary steps.     

“Tel Aviv Is Not Foreign to You”: Urban Incorporation Policy on Labor Migrants in Israel1

This article addresses the growing disjuncture between urban and national policies regarding the incorporation of labor migrants in Israel. Drawing on fieldwork, in‐depth interviews with Tel Aviv municipal officials, and archive analysis of Tel Aviv municipality minutes, we argue that urban migrant‐directed policy elicits new understandings of membership and participation, other than those envisaged by national parameters, which bear important, even if unintended, consequences for the de facto incorporation of non‐Jewish labor migrants. The crux of the Tel Aviv case is that its migrant‐directed policy bears especially on undocumented labor migrants, who make up approximately 16 percent of the city's population and who are the most problematic category of resident from the state's point of view. In demanding recognition for the rights of migrant workers in the name of a territorial category of “residence,” and by activating channels of participation for migrant communities, local authorities in Tel Aviv are introducing definitions of “urban membership” for noncitizens which conflict sharply with the hegemonic ethnonational policy. We suggest that the disjuncture between urban and national incorporation policies on labor migrants in Israel is part of a general process of political realignment between the urban and the national taking place within a globalized context of labor migration.     

Work,Refuge, Transit: An Emerging Pattern of Irregular Immigration South and East of the Mediterranean

Southern and Eastern Mediterranean (SEM) countries have recently turned into receivers of migrants, but they have neither the institutions nor the policies that would allow them to integrate migrants. Therefore, most migrants in SEM countries found themselves in irregular situation. Using a variety of statistical sources, official and non‐official, the article establishes that out of 5.6 million immigrants living in SEM countries in the mid‐2000s, a minimum of 3.6 would be in irregular situation. They belong to three categories: approximately 2 million migrant workers attracted by SEM labour markets where they are employed in the informal sector with no work permit, 1.5 million de facto refugees who cannot obtain the status of refugee and are waiting for resettlement in a third country or return to their homes, and less than 200,000 transit migrants initially bound for Europe, which they are unable to reach for lack of visa. While their reasons to be stranded in the SEM differ, these three categories share the same vulnerable conditions, with no legal access to work, services, or protection.     

Empowering,invasive or a little bit of both? A reflection on the use of visual and narrative methods in research with migrant sex workers in South Africa

Although migration plays a critical role in the economic landscape of the world, government officials and researchers do not sufficiently include migration and/or migrants in research studies and development policies. In South Africa, many migrants – both internal and cross-border – engage in informal livelihood strategies, including sex work (see Richter et al. 2012). Currently, the bulk of research that is being conducted in South Africa in the areas of migration and sex work rely heavily on the use of traditional research approaches and focus mainly on concerns surrounding issues of public health, with increased attention to HIV (for example, see SANAC 2013; Scheibe, Drame and Shannon 2012; Scorgie et al. 2011). While this work is invaluable, there is a need for research that can counter the stigma that sex workers overwhelmingly face in light of HIV/AIDS. Participatory visual and narrative research approaches – as part of mixed method study designs – that examine the lived experiences of migrant sex workers can provide important insights that ‘move beyond the polarized and simplistic arguments that have circulated in South African about migrant sex workers’ (Nyangairi and Palmary, 2014, 132). This methodological approach makes important and necessary contributions to national and international discourses on migration and sex work (see Oliveira and Vearey 2015). In addition, these methods provide a unique platform where the normative discourses that portray migrants as a homogenous vulnerable and apolitical group of people can be contested (Palmary 2006). In this article, I present and discuss three participatory visual and narrative research projects that have been conducted with migrant men, women and transgender persons who sell sex in two Provinces of South Africa and examine the suitability of these approaches.     

The Dark Side of Democracy: Migration, Xenophobia and Human Rights in South Africa

South Africa prides itself on having one of the most progressive constitutions in the world. The Bill of Rights guarantees a host of basic political, cultural and socio-economic rights to all who are resident in the country. Yet there have been persistent reports that citizen intolerance of non-citizens, refugees and migrants has escalated dramatically since 1994.
This article documents this process through presentation of results of national public opinion surveyed by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP).
The surveys show that intolerance is extremely pervasive and growing in intensity and seriousness. Abuse of migrants and refugees has intensified and there is little support for the idea of migrant rights. Only one group of South Africans, a small minority with regular personal contact with non-citizens, is significantly more tolerant.
These findings do not augur well for migrant and refugee rights in this newly democratic country, or early acceptance of the UN Convention on the protection of migrant workers.     

The Emergence of Pro-Regularization Movements in Western Europe

Contrary to the image conveyed by existing research on irregular migrants as powerless and exploited victims of restrictive immigration policies, irregular migrants in some European countries display a strong potential for collective action. In France, Spain and Switzerland since the mid‐1990s pro‐regularization movements have emerged which have claimed the collective regularization of illegal migrants. At the centre of these new social movements were illegal migrants from sub‐saharan Africa, Latin America and former Yugoslavia who went public and claimed a legal residence status. This article starts form the assumption that despite important differences between the three countries, they share several central characteristics which enabled the emergence of these pro‐regularization movements. In order to identify these pre‐conditions, three country studies, based on an innovative social movement research approach, were carried out. The findings of the country studies show that the findings of the country studies shows that in the three countries the same specific preconditions existed which encouraged the emergence of the pro‐regularization movements.     

Undocumented migration to Venezuela

"In 1980 Venezuela took...steps to regularize the undocumented migrant population. While the number responding to the amnesty was small relative to expectations, the majority of illegals appeared to have regularized their status. For the first time it was possible to assess objectively the characteristics of the undocumented population. Moreover, the problem of illegal migrants seems to have been temporarily solved, a result of both the amnesty and the country's declining economic activity." Topics covered in the present article include the nationality, geographic distribution, sex and age distribution, educational status, and occupations of undocumented migrants.     

Problems and policies regarding the socio-economic integration of returnees and foreign workers in Greece

"The integration of repatriating Greek migrants, ethnic Greeks and foreign workers has individual and macroeconomic aspects, both of which must be addressed within a dynamic perspective.... This article analyses the problems involved, and the policies and programmes adopted (or the lack of policies), for the integration of incoming workers to the Greek economy. Wherever possible, the suitability and effectiveness of measures taken are evaluated against the experience gained.... It may be concluded from this analysis that policies adopted for the integration of various migrant groups to Greece (i.e. Greek migrant returnees, ethnic-Greek foreigners and illegal migrants) lack a central aim, orientation and strategy, as well as a long-term perspective." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Trump Today

During his presidential campaign, Donald Trump vowed to “Make America Great Again” by way of a new isolationism of the US. In the first 100 days of his presidency, he has restricted immigration, pursued aggressively the deportation of undocumented immigrants, and drastically reduced the US State Department. Judged in terms of transnational American Studies, his policies have employed a new nationalism to disguise a one-way global agenda. Trump’s withdrawal from the Transpacific Partnership has reconfigured economic relations across the Pacific and in East Asia. His approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline project has enriched a Canadian corporation. Even his appointment of Elizabeth Devos as Secretary of Education has obscured his close relations with her brother, Erik Prince, the infamous founder of Blackwater Security, an international corporation that supplies mercenaries to governments around the world. Transnational American Studies has an ethical obligation to continue its work of understanding US politics, economics, and culture in terms of its global consequences.     

Fostering Free Movement of Persons in West Africa: Achievements, Constraints, and Prospects for Intraregional Migration

Migration in West Africa is strongly influenced by poverty, depressed economies, and socio-political crises. The influx of migrants into the cities and irregular migrations across national borders in search of decent living conditions reflect a crisis of development. To understand the dynamics of these diverse migrations, we focus on causes and changing configurations of emerging migratory flows; autonomous female migration, trafficking in women and children; intraregional migration as alternatives to "illegal" migration to the North; progress and constraints in creating a borderless subregion and fostering intraregional migration.
The abolition of the mandatory residency permit, introduction of Brown Card travel certificates, and the elimination of the ubiquitous border formalities are aimed at facilitating intraregional movements of persons. Progress was constrained by multiple cooperation groupings and memberships, conflicting objectives, inconsistent political support, growing national identity, depressed economies, and xenophobia against "foreigners". We suggest that governments should align national employment laws with regional treaties, protect the rights of migrant workers, promote pro-poor employment strategies, adopt variable speed approach in implementing migration policies, and enforce migrants' rights of residence and establishment.     

Becoming Less Illegal: Deservingness Frames and Undocumented Migrant Incorporation

Over the last two decades, research on unauthorized migration has departed from the equation of migrant illegality with absolute exclusion, emphasizing that formal exclusion typically results in subordinate inclusion. Irregular migrants integrate through informal support networks, the underground economy, and political activities. But they also incorporate into formal institutions, through policy divergence between levels of government, bureaucratic sabotage, or fraud. The incorporation of undocumented migrants involves not so much invisibility as camouflage – presenting the paradox that camouflage improves with integration. As it reaches the formal level of claims and procedures, legalization brings up the issue of the frames through which legal deservingness is asserted. Looking at the moral economy embedded in claims and programs, we examine a series of frame tensions: between universal and particular claims to legal status, between legalization based on vulnerability and that based on civic performance, between economic and cultural deservingness, and between the policy level and individual subjectivity. We show that restrictionist governments face a dilemma when their constructions of “good citizenship” threaten to extend to “deserving” undocumented migrants. Hence, they may simultaneously emphasize deservingness frames while limiting irregular migrants’ opportunities to deserve, effectively making deservingness both a civic obligation and a civic privilege.     

Labour migration from South and South-East Asia: some policy issues

The rise in migration for employment since the mid-1970s has had serious consequences for many Asian countries. This discussion examines the issues raised by the migration abroad of thousands of skilled workers and the efforts that sending countries have made in recent years to bring the effects of labor migration more closely into line with their development objectives. It also considers several problem areas requiring the attention of policymakers and authorities responsible for the administration of overseas employment policies. It is estimated that between 1976-81 annual labor migrant flows from the 8 major sending countries in Asia increased sevenfold, from a mere 146,400 to over 1 million. The Asian migrant workers tend to be young, male, married (with dependents in the sending country), and better educated than the average home population. Most of them come from rural areas and are predominantly employed in construction and labor. The most distinctive feature of these workers is their concentration in a few blue collar occupations--carpenters, masons, electricians, plumbers, lorry drivers, mechanics, and heavy equipment operators. These production and trnasport workers outnumber the professional and technical workers by anywhere from 3 to 1 (Philippines) to 17 to 1 (Pakistan and Sri Lanka). At the aggregate level labor emigration affects the sending country's economy through its impact on the labor market, on the financial market, and on the market for goods and services. It can be argued that the outflow of a significant proportion of the labor force should lead directly to a rise in labor projectivity in the sending country since capital per worker among those left behind will increase, yet it can also be argued that since migration sifts out the most skilled and experienced workers there will be an erosion of the country's human captial resources. Specific measures have been adopted in most labor sending Asian countries to protect the welfare of migrant workers, to regulate conditions of employment abroad, to restrict the outflow of scarce skills, and to secure new overseas markets for nationals. Despite the efforts of governments to ensure that workers have satisfactory contracts on going abroad, many cases of "contract substitution" have been reported. The present attitude of many governments toward private recruiters seems to reflect both an acknowledgement of their effectiveness in finding job placements overseas and a growing concern to regulate their activities. The present trend seems to be to allow private agencies easier access while exercising greater supervision over those permitted to operate. The impact of labor migration on the labor markets of sending countries has not been uniformly damaging, but most of the countries have adopted 1 kind of policy or another to reduce the outflow of scarce skills. The use of material and other incentives for retaining workers in the country has obvious advantages but is not very widespread.