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The UN Convention on Migrant Workers’ Rights and International Migration Management

2009; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 23; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13600820902958741

1469-798X

Antoine Pécoud,

International Labor and Employment Law

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between the UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families and contemporary discourses on international migration management. It shows that, while both converge on a number of points such as multilateral cooperation in policy making or the need for a comprehensive approach to migration, the Convention is largely ignored by most of the initiatives taking place under the "migration management" umbrella, and that it therefore remains an under-ratified treaty. To understand this situation, the paper analyses the obstacles encountered by the Convention and shows that further acceptance of the Convention is hampered by profound political obstacles. It therefore argues that, if migration management has introduced shifts in states' approach to migration, it has so far been unable to put migrants' rights at the core of this process, and that this may ultimately jeopardise its success. Notes 1. General Assembly Resolution 45/158. 2. Amnesty International, Living in the Shadows: A Primer on the Human Rights of Migrants (London: Amnesty International, 2006). 3. Fernand de Varennes, "Strangers in Foreign Land"—Diversity, Vulnerability and the Rights of Migrants, MOST Working Paper 9 (Paris: UNESCO, 2002). 4. Peter Stalker, Workers without Frontiers: The Impact of Globalization on International Migration (Boulder: Lynne Rienner/ILO, 2000). 5. Graziano Battistella, "Irregular Migration", in International Organization for Migration, 2008 World Migration Report (Geneva: IOM), pp. 201–233. 6. Médecins du Monde, Enquête européenne sur l'accès aux soins des personnes en situation irrégulière (Paris: Observatoire Européen de l'Accès aux Soins de Médecins du Monde, 2007). See also Sylvie Da Lomba, "Fundamental Social Rights for Irregular Migrants: The Right to Health Care in France and England", in B. Bogusz, R. Cholewinski, A. Cygan and E. Szyszczak (eds.), Irregular Migration and Human Rights: Theoretical, European, and International Perspectives (Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff, 2004), pp. 363–386. 7. David Weissbrodt "The Protection of Non-nationals in International Human Rights Law", in R. Cholewinski, R. Perruchoud and E. MacDonald (eds.), International Migration Law: Developing Paradigms and Key Challenges (The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2007), pp. 221–235. 8. Michael Hasenau, "ILO Standards on Migrant Workers: The Fundamentals of the UN Convention and their Genesis", International Migration Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (1991), pp. 687–697. 9. Joan Fitzpatrick, "The Human Rights of Migrants", in T.A. Aleinikoff and V. Chetail (eds.), Migration and International Legal Norms (The Hague: T.M.C. Asser Press, 2003), pp. 169–184. 10. Roger Böhning, "The ILO and the New UN Convention on Migrant Workers: The Past and Future", International Migration Review, Vol. 25, No. 4 (1991), pp. 698–709. 11. In 2000, 18 December became International Migrants' Day. 12. The migrant worker is defined as "a person who is to be engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national" (Article 2(1)). For a detailed presentation of the content of the Convention, see Ryszard Cholewinski, Migrant Workers in International Human Rights Law: Their Protection in Countries of Employment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997). The text of the Convention can be found at . 13. These include providing information on conditions of admission and remunerated activity; giving the right to emigrate and return; regulating and monitoring recruitment agencies; assisting migrants in the resettlement and reintegration process; and providing overseas voting rights. 14. The following states have ratified the Convention: Albania (2007), Algeria (2005), Argentina (2007), Azerbaijan (1999), Belize (2001), Bolivia (2000), Bosnia &-Herzegovina (1996), Burkina Faso (2003), Cape Verde (1997), Chile (2005), Colombia (1995), Ecuador (2002), El Salvador (2003), Egypt (1993), Ghana (2000), Guatemala (2003), Guinea (2000), Honduras (2005), Jamaica (2008), Kyrgyz Republic (2003), Lesotho (2005), Libya (2004), Mali (2003), Mauritania (2007), Mexico (1999), Morocco (1993), Nicaragua (2005), Paraguay (2008), Peru (2005), Philippines (1995), Rwanda (2008), Senegal (1999), Seychelles (1994), Sri Lanka (1996), Syria (2005), Tajikistan (2002), Timor-Leste (2004), Turkey (2004), Uganda (1995), Uruguay (2001). 15. Shirley Hune and Jan Niessen, "The First UN Convention on Migrant Workers", Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 9, No. 2 (1991), pp. 130–141. 16. Jorge A. Bustamante, "Immigrants' Vulnerability as Subjects of Human Rights", International Migration Review, Vol. 36, No. 2 (2002), pp. 333–354. 17. Ibid. 18. Jorge Bustamante (Mexico) currently holds the position. From 1999 to 2005, the position was occupied by Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro (Costa Rica). See Gabriela Rodriguez, "The Role of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants", International Migration, Vol. 38, No. 6 (2000), pp. 73–79. 19. See . 20. Morocco, which serves as a transit country for migratory flows from West Africa to Europe, is in a relatively similar situation. 21. For studies on "migration management" see Bimal Ghosh, "Managing Migration: Towards the Missing Regime?", in Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire (eds.), Migration without Borders: Essays on the Free Movement of People (Oxford: Berghahn, 2007), pp. 97–118; Mehmet Ugur, "The Ethics, Economics and Governance of Free Movement", in Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire (eds.), Migration without Borders: An Investigation into the Free Movement of People (Oxford: Berghahn, 2007), pp. 65–95; Savitri Taylor, "From Border Control to Migration Management: The Case for a Paradigmatic Change in the Western Response to Transborder Population Movement", Social Policy & Administration, Vol. 39, No. 6 (2005), pp. 563–586. 22. For details, see IOM, "Illustration of Multilateral, Regional and Bilateral Cooperative Arrangements in the Management of Migration", in Aleinikoff and Chetail (eds.), Migration and International Legal Norms, op. cit., pp. 305–333; Anne-Grethe Nielsen, "Cooperation Mechanisms", in Cholewinski et al. (eds.), International Migration Law, op. cit., pp. 405–426. 23. For critical perspectives, see Graziano Battistella, "Migration and Human Rights: The Uneasy but Essential Relationship", in Paul de Guchteneire, Antoine Pécoud and Ryszard Cholewinski (eds.), Migration and Human Rights: The United Nations Convention on Migrant Workers' Rights (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009 (in press)); Stephen Castles, "Why Migration Policies Fail", Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2004), pp. 205–227; Guy S. Goodwin-Gill, "Migrant Rights and 'Managed Migration'", in V. Chetail (ed.), Globalisation, Migration and Human Rights: International Law under Review (Brussels: Bruylant, 2007), pp. 161–187; Mariette Grange and Marie d'Auchamp, "Role of Civil Society in Campaigning for and Using the ICRMW", in de Guchteneire et al. (eds.), Migration and Human Rights, op. cit.; Ronaldo Munck, "Globalisation, Governance and Migration: An Introduction", Third World Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 7 (2008), pp. 1227–1246. 24. Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire, "Between Global Governance and Human Rights. International Migration and the United Nations", Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 8, No. 2 (2007), pp. 115–123. 25. Global Commission on International Migration, Migration in an Interconnected World: New Directions for Action (Geneva: GCIM), p. 57. 26. Stephanie Grant, "GCIM Report: Defining an 'Ethical Compass' for International Migration Policy", International Migration, Vol. 44, No. 1 (2006), p. 18. See also Carla Edelenbos, "Committee on Migrant Workers and Implementation of the ICRMW", in de Guchteneire et al. (eds.), Migration and Human Rights, op. cit. 27. United Nations General Assembly A/61/515, Summary of the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, 13 October 2006. 28. Philip Martin, Susan Martin and Sarah Cross, "High-level Dialogue on Migration and Development", International Migration, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2007), pp. 7–25. 29. . 30. . 31. . 32. . 33. International Labour Organization, ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration: Non-binding Principles and Guidelines for a Rights-based Approach to Labour Migration (Geneva: ILO, 2006). 34. For more information, see Antoine Pécoud and Paul de Guchteneire, "Migration, Human Rights and the United Nations: An Investigation into the Obstacles to the UN Convention on Migrant Workers' Rights", Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice, Vol. 24, No. 2 (2006), pp. 241–266. 35. Srdjan Vucetic, "Democracies and International Human Rights: Why is there No Place for Migrant Workers?", International Journal of Human Rights, Vol. 11, No. 4 (2007), p. 404. 36. Patrick A. Taran, "Human Rights of Migrants: Challenges of the New Decade", International Migration, Vol. 38, No. 6 (2000), pp. 7–51. 37. "Nothing in the present Convention shall affect the right of each State Party to establish the criteria governing admission of migrant workers and members of their families." The relegation of this statement to Article 79 may nevertheless be interpreted as an indication that respect for national sovereignty was not the priority of the ICRMW's drafters. Vucetic, op. cit. 38. "States Parties shall take measures that they deem appropriate and that fall within their competence to facilitate the reunification of migrant workers' with their family members" (Article 44(2); emphasis added). 39. European Economic and Social Committee, SOC/173, Opinion No. 960 of 30 June 2004. 40. Euan MacDonald and Ryszard Cholewinski, The Migrant Workers' Convention in Europe: Obstacles to the Ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families: EU/EEA Perspectives, UNESCO Migration Studies 1 (Paris: UNESCO, 2007). 41. Dirk Vanheule, Marie-Claire Foblets, Sander Loones and Steven Bouckaert, "The Significance of the UN Migrant Workers' Convention of 18 December 1990 in The Event of Ratification by Belgium", European Journal of Migration and Law, Vol. 6, No. 4 (2005), p. 320. 44. GCIM, op. cit., p. 57. 42. Linda S. Bosniak, "Human Rights, State Sovereignty and the Protection of Undocumented Migrants under the International Migrant Workers Convention", in Bogusz et al. (eds.), Irregular Migration and Human Rights, op. cit., pp. 311–341. 43. Vucetic, op. cit. 45. Peter van Krieken, "Migrants' Rights and the Law of the Sea: Further Efforts to Ensure Universal Participation", International Migration, Vol. 45, No. 1 (2007), pp. 209–224. 46. Guillermo Alonso Meneses, "Human Rights and Undocumented Migration along the Mexican–U.S. Border", UCLA Law Review, Vol. 51, No. 1 (2003), pp. 267–281; Shyla Vohra, "Detention of Irregular Migrants and Asylum Seekers", in Bogusz et al. (eds.), Irregular Migration and Human Rights, op. cit., pp. 49–69. 47. Walter Kälin, "Human Rights and the Integration of Migrants", in Aleinikoff and Chetail (eds.), Migration and International Legal Norms, op. cit., pp. 271–287. 48. Anne Gallagher, "Human Rights and the New UN Protocols on Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling: A Preliminary Analysis", Human Rights Quarterly, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2001), pp. 975–1004. 49. Martin et al. (eds.), op. cit. 50. T. Alexander Aleinikoff, "International Legal Norms on Migration: Substance without Architecture", in Cholewinski et al. (eds.), International Migration Law, op. cit., pp. 467–480. 51. Alexander Betts, Towards a "Soft Law" Framework for the Protection of Vulnerable Migrants, New Issues in Refugee Research, Research Paper No. 162 (Geneva: UNHCR, 2008). 52. Martin Ruhs and Ha-Joon Chang, "The Ethics of Labor Immigration Policy", International Organization, Vol. 58 (2004), pp. 69–102. 53. Martin Ruhs and Philip Martin, "Number vs. Rights: Trade-offs and Guest Worker Programmes", International Migration Review, Vol. 42, No. 1 (2008), pp. 249–265. 54. Patrick A. Taran, "Clashing Worlds: Imperative for a Rights-based Approach to Labour Migration in the Age of Globalisation", in Chetail (ed.), Globalisation, Migration and Human Rights, op. cit., pp. 403–433. 55. Amnesty International, op. cit., p. 25. 56. For a case study see David Kyle and Christina A. Siracusa, "Seeing the State Like a Migrant. Why So Many Non-criminals Break Immigration Laws", in W. van Schendel and I. Abraham (eds.), Illicit Flows and Criminal Things: States, Borders, and the Other Side of Globalisation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), pp. 153–176.