International migration and the global agenda: reflections on the 1998 UN Technical Symposium

This article reviews the nature of discussions at the 1998 UN Technical Symposium on International Migration and Development. The Symposium reviewed the literature linking migration and development and successful policy approaches. Several themes emerged. A research framework is needed for accounting for all types of population mobility at all stages of the migratory process. Research should integrate contributions from a range of disciplines. The influence of social networks and cultural capital has grown in importance. Strategies need to account for women's experiences, which involve both empowerment and exploitation. Strategies need to consider return migration and better public information on migration and settlement. It was agreed that there is a need for a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches and multidimensional analysis. The links between migration and development are complex, but sufficient information is available to greatly improve policy formation and international cooperation. National level responses have occasionally eroded the rights and protection of migrants. Few countries have adopted the 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of Migrant Workers and their Families and ILO Conventions 97 and 143. A prominent realization was that international cooperation did matter. International migration should be viewed as an opportunity for cooperation and development.     

The protection of migrant workers and international labour standards

International labor standards take the form of Conventions and Recommendations that embody the agreements reached by a 2/3 majority of the representatives of Governments, Employers, and Workers of International Labour Office (ILO) member states. Originally designed to guard against the danger that 1 country or other would keep down wages and working conditions to gain competitive advantage and thereby undermine advances elsewhere, international labor standards have also been inspired by humanitarian concerns--the visible plight of workers and the physical dangers of industrialization and by the notion of social justice, which embraces wellbeing and dignity, security, and equality as well as a measure of participation in economic and social matters. ILO standards apply to workers generally and therefore also to migrant workers, irrespective of the fact that the general standards are complemented by standards especially for migrant workers. The social security protection of migrant workers has been dealt with in ILO instruments primarily from the angle of equality of treatment but also from that of the maintenance of acquired rights and rights in course of acquisition, including the payment of benefits to entitled persons resident abroad. The ILO Conventions on migrant workers and the Recommendations which supplement them deal with practically all aspects of the work and life of non-nationals such as recruitment matters, information to be made available, contract conditions, medical examination and attention, customs, exemption for personal effects, assistance in settling into their new environment, vocational training, promotion at work, job security and alternative employment, liberty of movement, participation in the cultural life of the state as well as maintenance of their own culture, transfer of earnings and savings, family reunification and visits, appeal against unjustified termination of employment or expulsion, and return assistance. ILO's supervisory mechanism consists basically of a dialogue between the ILO and the Government that is responsible for a law, regulation, or practice alleged to be in contravention of principles it voluntarily accepted. The control machinery is often set in motion by workers' organizations. The UN General Assembly is currently elaborating a new instrument designed to cover both regular and irregular migrant workers and their families.     

Human Rights of Migrants: Challenges of the New Decade

This review summarizes main trends, issues, debates, actors and initiatives regarding recognition and extension of protection of the human rights of migrants. Its premise is that the rule of law and universal notions of human rights are essential foundations for democratic society and social peace. Evidence demonstrates that violations of migrants' human rights are so widespread and commonplace that they are a defining feature of international migration today. About 150 million persons live outside their countries; in many States, legal application of human rights norms to non‐citizens is inadequate or seriously deficient, especially regarding irregular migrants. Extensive hostility against, abuse of and violence towards migrants and other non‐nationals has become much more visible worldwide in recent years. Research, documentation and analysis of the character and extent of problems and of effective remedies remain minimal. Resistance to recognition of migrants' rights is bound up in exploitation of migrants in marginal, low status, inadequately regulated or illegal sectors of economic activity. Unauthorized migrants are often treated as a reserve of flexible labour, outside the protection of labour safety, health, minimum wage and other standards, and easily deportable. Evidence on globalization points to worsening migration pressures in many parts of the world. Processes integral to globalization have intensified disruptive effects of modernization and capitalist development, contributing to economic insecurity and displacement for many. Extension of principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights culminated in the 1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families. With little attention, progress in ratifications was very slow until two years ago. A global campaign revived attention; entry into force is likely in 2001. Comparative analysis notes that ILO migrant worker Conventions have generally achieved objectives but States have resisted adoption of any standards on treatment of non‐nationals. A counter‐offensive against human rights as universal, indivisible and inalienable underlies resistance to extension of human rights protection to migrants. A parallel trend is deliberate association of migration and migrants with criminality. Trafficking has emerged as a global theme contextualizing migration in a framework of combatting organized crime and criminality, subordinating human rights protections to control and anti‐crime measures. Intergovernmental cooperation on migration “management” is expanding rapidly, with functioning regional intergovernmental consultative processes in all regions, generally focused on strengthening inter‐state cooperation in controlling and preventing irregular migration through improved border controls, information sharing, return agreements and other measures. Efforts to defend human rights of migrants and combat xenophobia remain fragmented, limited in impact and starved of resources. Nonetheless, NGOs in all regions provide orientation, services and assistance to migrants, public education and advocating respect for migrants rights and dignity. Several international initiatives now highlight migrant protection concerns, notably the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants, the Global Campaign promoting the 1990 UN Convention, UN General Assembly proclamation of International Migrants Day, the 2001 World Conference Against Racism and Xenophobia, anti‐discrimination activity by ILO, and training by IOM. Suggestions to governments emphasize the need to define comprehensive, coordinated migration policy and practice based on economic, social and development concerns rather than reactive control measures to ensure beneficial migration, social harmony, and dignified treatment of nationals and non‐nationals. NGOs, businesses, trade unions, and religious groups are urged to advocate respect for international standards, professionalize services and capacities, take leadership in opposing xenophobic behaviour, and join international initiatives. Need for increased attention to migrants rights initiatives and inter‐agency cooperation by international organizations is also noted.     

Channels of Entry and Preferred Destinations: The Circumvention of Denmark by Chinese Immigrants

As globalization spread during the 1990s, and especially since the turn of the millennium, European states have increasingly claimed their right to assert their sovereignty by regulating migration at the level of the individual (OECD, 2001: 76–81). Political parties have succeeded in gaining support on policy statements pertaining exclusively to migration. For example, recent legislation in Denmark restricts the categories of persons eligible as refugees to “Convention refugees” satisfying only the narrowest international criteria set out in the UN Refugee Convention. The civil rights of asylum seekers are restricted by prohibiting marriage while their applications are under review. To limit family reunification among immigrants, the present Danish Government has even prohibited immigrants with permanent residence status and Danish citizens from bringing non‐Danish spouses under age 24 into the country. These attempts at border enforcement and immigration control have been described by some critics as the endeavours of European Union (EU) members to build a “Fortress Europe” against immigrants from developing countries. Policy decisions and the implementation of various measures from finger printing to radar surveillance to control immigrants have corroborated such perceptions, but this paper will show that gaining entry to a highly controlled country such as Denmark from a poorer country such as the People's Republic of China (PRC) is fairly straightforward. Politicians may wish to convey the impression of being in control of international mobility by launching diverse anti‐immigration acts, but since the immigration embargo of the early 1970s all EU countries have received millions of immigrants, and increasingly permit or accept immigrants of various kinds to reside and work within their borders (Boeri et al., 2002). Immigration from developing countries is not evenly distributed throughout the EU, but rather targets specific destinations. This article will attempt to explain the direction of Chinese immigration flows to Europe in response to labour‐market demand, rather than as a consequence of “loopholes” in a country's legal or welfare provisions. By analysing historical and demographic data on the PRC Chinese in Denmark, I attempt to demonstrate that, despite being a European country with one of the lowest asylum rejection rates for PRC Chinese, the scope of Chinese asylum seekers and regular and irregular migrants arriving by way of family reunification remained limited in the 1990s compared to southern, central, and eastern European countries. My analysis of Danish data in relation to Chinese migration suggest that destinations related to the globalization of Chinese migration is more determined by labour and capital markets than the presumed attraction of social welfare benefits provided by a European welfare state such as Denmark.     

Colonialism,Decolonisation, and the Right to be Human: Britain and the 1951 Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees

The Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees is central to scholarship on refugee and asylum issues. It is the primary basis upon which asylum seekers make their claims to the majority of host states today and, as a key text of the human rights framework, has come to be associated with the very idea of a universalised rights-bearing human being. Yet British asylum policy today is characterized by efforts to limit access to the right to asylum. Many scholars believe this is because asylum seekers today are different, in character and number, to previous cohorts of applicants. This article goes back to the founding of the refugee rights regime and investigates the exclusions of colonized peoples from access to the right to asylum. Using Chimni's concept of the “myth of difference”, the article demonstrates that asylum seekers have long existed outside of Europe, and that their exclusion from international rights has been both longstanding and intentional. This historical sociology suggests that the basis for critical work on the issue of asylum policy today must be one which takes colonial histories into account.     

Intercountry Adoption

Abstract

In recent years, the practice of intercountry adoption is increasingly being debated within the context of human rights. Intercountry adoption raises many ethical and legal issues which are addressed in two international treaties: the Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, and the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Cooperation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption, adopted by the Hague Conference on Private International Law in 1993. This paper compares the international standards provided by these instruments and the way they are being interpreted by the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the official monitoring body of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It also discusses some of the measures undertaken by a number of countries in different regions of the world.     

The Push and Pull Factors Contributing Towards Asylum Migration from Developing Countries to Developed Countries Since 2000

In the early 2000s, asylum seekers went primarily to destinations their countries had historical relationships, including former colonial ties, common languages and ethnic networks. Since the mid-2000s, there has been a shift towards asylum seekers arriving in destinations without such relationships. In this study, we apply spatial interaction models to understand the factors contributing to recent asylum migration from developing countries to developed countries from 2001 to 2015. We find that the push factors of political terror, civil rights violation and poverty do not result in increased asylum migration to developed countries. Instead, they act to reduce the number of asylum seekers. We also find that interactions between a range of push factors are important for understanding the movements and that immigration policies can have considerable effects on the destination choices of asylum seekers.     

International migration in Western Europe: reflections on the past five years

Five significant developments have occurred since 1974 with regard to the European labor force: 1) growth of return migration; 2) adoption of a new ILO Convention and Recommendation on return migration; 3) the movement towards a New International Economic Order; 4) the holding of the World Employment Conference in 1976; and 5) growing support for the idea that countries of origin should be compensated for out-migration of its citizens. About 1.5-2 million migrant workers have returned to their country of origin since the early 1970's when about 6 million workers and dependents were in Western Europe. The inequity that pervades international economic relations in general and migration in particular stems from the unequal bargaining power of the partners and the absense of corrective international social policies. The developing countries' wish for a new economic order questions the distributional aspects of the old liberal order. While raw materials and trade are covered comprehensively, labor movement is neglected. The growing realization that migration is a resource drain has led many poor countries to request compensation.     

Responses of the social work profession to unaccompanied children seeking asylum in the Republic of Ireland

The Republic of Ireland is rapidly developing immigration legislation and policies to respond to its relatively new status as a destination for asylum seekers and refugees within the European Union. New political definitions of asylum seekers and refugees are being constructed in a country with its own history of mass emigration. At the same time, the economic growth that is making Ireland a more attractive destination for asylum seekers and refugees has also fuelled an unprecedented expansion in the employment of social workers. Specialized services are now being developed for unaccompanied children who are seeking asylum. This expansion in the number of social workers and growth in service provision has led to little professional debate about the role of social workers with asylum seekers and refugees. This paper examines the questions raised by the provision of social work services to these children and considers the wider implications for the development of the social work profession and social work practices in Ireland.     

Chinese Politics in the General Assembly

In this analysis of 344 selected votes in four major issue areasin the UN General Assembly between 1971 and 1977, the basicfindings are that Chinese politics in the Assembly were basedon complex, shifting mixes of ideological and national considerationsand that China has for the most part succeeded in fulfillingits promise to support the developing nations and oppose old,big, and rich nations, at least within the context of the UN.     

The convention on the rights of the child: A young legal regime for the world's youngest citizens

In November, 1989 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This international resolution seeks to safeguard the physical, social, cultural, and religious rights of children, and to establish a new legal regime for the protection of children's rights. This paper examines the legal foundations of the Convention relative to international law, the legal effect of a United Nations Convention upon nations, describes the main provisions of the Convention, and discusses the ratification and enforcement of the Convention.     

Protection of Migrants' Human Rights: Principles and Practice

In principle, migrants enjoy the protection of international law. Key human rights instruments oblige the States Parties to extend their protection to all human beings. Such important treaties as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have been ratified by more than 140 states, but many political, social or economic obstacles seem to stand in the way of offering those rights to migrants. In an attempt to bridge this protection gap, the more specifically targeted International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families was created and adopted by the United Nations in 1990. This treaty is not yet in force, but the number of States Parties is increasing towards the required 20. In the past few years the human rights machinery of the United Nations has increased its attention towards migrants' human rights, appointing in 1999 the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants. Governments, as the acceding parties to international human rights instruments, remain the principal actors as guardians of the human rights of all individuals residing in their territories. Receiving countries are in a key position in the protection of the migrants that they host. However, active defence of migrants' rights is politically difficult in many countries where anti‐immigrant factions are influential. Trafficking in migrants is one example of the complexity faced by states in formulating their migration policies. On the one hand, trafficking has made governments increasingly act together and combine both enforcement and protection. On the other, trafficking, with its easily acceptable human rights concerns, is often separated from the more migration‐related human smuggling. The latter is a more contentious issue, related also to unofficial interests in utilizing cheap undocumented immigrant labour.     

Books

Book reviewed in this article: Reviews: Littlewood, Michael. How to create a competitive market in pensions: The international lessons. Recent books: Beaujolin, Rachel. Les vertiges de l'emploi: L'entreprise face aux réductions d'effectifs. Recent books: Birien, Jean-Louis. Pratique des relations et négociations sociales. Recent books: Bonnet, Michel. Regards sur les enfants travailleurs. La mise au travail des enfants dans le monde contemporain: Analyse et études de cas. Recent books: Lyon-Caen, Gérard; Pélissier, Jean; Supiot, Alain. Droit du travail. New ILO publications: Le secteur informel en Afrique face aux contraintes légales et institutionnelles. New ILO publications: International Labour Conference, 87th Session, 1999. Report V (1 and 2): Maternity protection at work. Revision of the Maternity Protection Convention (Revised), 1952 (No. 103), and Recommendation, 1952 (No. 95). New ILO publications: International Labour Conference, 87th Session, 1999. Report IV (2B): Child labour. New ILO publications: International Labour Conference, 87th Session, 1999: Report III (Part 1A). Report of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations: General report and observations concerning particular countries. New ILO publications: International Labour Conference, Report III (Part 1B): Migrant workers. New ILO publications: International Labour Conference, 88th Session, 2000. Report VI (1): Safety and health in agriculture. New ILO publications: Technical and ethical guidelines for workers' health surveillance.     

The Movements of Working Children and the International Labour Organization. A Lesson on Enforced Silence

Relations between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and grassroots movements of working children are characterised by tensions. Working children's claim to participate in conceptualising child labour policy is increasingly rejected. Most recently, in November 2017, the Latin American Movement of Working Children and Adolescents (MOLACNATs) lodged a complaint with the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child over violations of rights enshrined in the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This article reconstructs the history of working children's movements and their communication with ILO since the 1990s.     

East Timorese women asylum seekers in Australia: Extrapolating a case for resettlement services

After up to 10 years of living as asylum seekers in Australia it appears that most of 1650 East Timorese will be granted permanent residency. The present study describes research into the wellbeing of East Timorese women asylum seekers that found severe risks to social and emotional wellbeing associated with prolonged asylum seeker status. The research findings highlighted a need for measures to protect the wellbeing of asylum seekers during the assessment stage of applications for protection visas. The author refers to the research findings to encourage debate around the need for asylum seekers generally to have access to resettlement services as a policy strategy to provide necessary psychological and material support. Arguing that neglect of basic assistance during the assessment phase of protection applications potentially breaches the UN Declaration, the author illustrates individual, community and global benefits of providing adequate support and avenues for personal development to asylum seekers.     

Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia: Transnational Variations and Policy Concerns

The labour force of the migrant domestic workers (MDWs) has become one of the significant policy concerns in Asia. Most of the Asian countries are not following (or not to an equal extent) the Domestic Workers Convention 2011 (No. 189) which has been adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The objective of this article is to show the transnational variations and policy concerns of the MDWs in Asia. Based on content analysis, the authors found that there are considerable transnational variations of the MDWs in terms of their age and nature of work, legal identity, working hours, and remuneration across Asian countries. These variations have serious policy concerns in a number of areas such as lack of available data of the MDWs, working conditions, exploitations, and gender issues. The findings of the article would be an important guideline for adopting new legislation and labour policy for the MDWs in Asia.     

Human Rights,Income and International Migration

This study contributes to the literature of migration studies by addressing the question: why does international migration persist despite welfare improvements in migrant‐sending countries? We propose that the human rights condition of the origin countries is an important determinant of global migration. Although the human rights issue is not new to researchers in migration studies, the concern is primarily about the rights of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers or migrant workers in a host country. We undertake a bilateral panel data analysis to examine the pattern of global bilateral migration between 1995 and 2010. We find that international migration is positively associated with human rights conditions and income. Similar results are also obtained when we control for multilateral resistance and possible sample selection biases in a panel context. Our study implies that efforts to promote human rights may also be assessed in relation to their contribution to migration flows.     

User involvement and empowerment among asylum seekers in Norwegian reception centres

A considerable amount of literature has been published on conditions in reception centres for asylum seekers. The previous studies show that the life of residents in the centres is characterised by uncertainty, passivity, powerlessness and gradual disqualification. Drawing from data collected from asylum seekers and service providers in Norwegian reception centres, this article examines the tools used to counteract these processes. The article maintains that organised activities, such as language courses and user involvement in the form of cooperative councils, have an impact on the empowerment of asylum seekers. However, user motivation for participation and involvement in these arrangements is undermined, due to residents' responses on factors which operate both at the structural and relational level. The findings and questions raised in the article have wider implications for social work with asylum seekers in other European countries, as well as for current efforts being made by EU countries to regulate reception conditions for asylum seekers. Among other things, the authors relate their findings to reception standards as defined in the EU Directive on Reception Conditions for asylum seekers.     

Fake Passports and Appointed Communities: Nation and Transnationalism in the Danish Asylum System

Nationality underwrites a great deal of the Danish asylum process, and of the refugee regime as a whole. The housing and care of asylum seekers, handled by the Danish Red Cross, is based on classifications by nationality. Bending a phrase from Benedict Anderson, these might be called 'appointed communities'. While the Danish asylum system in principle performs individual determination procedures for asylum seekers, granting refugee status on a case-by-case basis, in practice those identified as Iraqi or Afghani have had a very high acceptance rate. However, it is clearly the case that not all asylum seekers have citizenship of the countries they claim to come from, or indeed feel they come from the countries of which they have citizenship. In this context, we must enquire about the mechanics of determining nationality and about how asylum seekers themselves relate to national identities. I argue that although the social networks that are significant to asylum seekers at times may be composed mainly of individuals from a single nation, they are also thoroughly transnational, and embody a sense of home not necessarily so tightly bound to place, as the asylum process presumes.     

Fake Passports and Appointed Communities: Nation and Transnationalism in the Danish Asylum System

Nationality underwrites a great deal of the Danish asylum process, and of the refugee regime as a whole. The housing and care of asylum seekers, handled by the Danish Red Cross, is based on classifications by nationality. Bending a phrase from Benedict Anderson, these might be called ‘appointed communities’. While the Danish asylum system in principle performs individual determination procedures for asylum seekers, granting refugee status on a case-by-case basis, in practice those identified as Iraqi or Afghani have had a very high acceptance rate. However, it is clearly the case that not all asylum seekers have citizenship of the countries they claim to come from, or indeed feel they come from the countries of which they have citizenship. In this context, we must enquire about the mechanics of determining nationality and about how asylum seekers themselves relate to national identities. I argue that although the social networks that are significant to asylum seekers at times may be composed mainly of individuals from a single nation, they are also thoroughly transnational, and embody a sense of home not necessarily so tightly bound to place, as the asylum process presumes.