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ABSTRACT
Against the presentation of an asymmetric global governance, this article analyzes the formation of global migration governance with its focus on the politics of migration and development. It traces the marginalization of a rights-based approach to migration and the streamlining of migration governance into business-friendly migration management and a geopolitical securitization agenda. It also reviews the trajectory towards factoring migration into a global development policy discourse as formulated in the UN 2030 Development Agenda. Specifically, it indicates that the inclusion of migration into the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) may promote migrant workers’ rights because several of these invoke universal human rights instruments, social protection and the observance of the ILO decent work agenda. However, this will only be possible if civil society critically engages powerful state and non-state actors in the process of monitoring the SDGs’ implementation, and resists their streamlining into investment and free trade neoliberal development regimes.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 According to ILO estimates, in 2013 there were 155 million migrant workers (55.7% men and 44.3% women), representing 4.4% of the global workforce. The largest shares of migrant workers live in the US (24.7%) and Northern, Western and South Europe (23.8%), followed by Asia and the Pacific (21.9%).
2 Namely, the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, including its 1967 Protocol, signed by around 150 countries (Martin, Citation2015).
3 For example, the 1949 Migration for Employment Convention (No. 97) and Recommendation (No. 86), ratified by 49 states, and the 1975 Migrant Workers’ Convention (No. 143) and Recommendation (No. 151), ratified only by 23 countries (Martin, Citation2015).
4 Critical migration scholars and human rights activists designate the term ‘forced migrants’ for all categories of migrants who emigrate due to poverty, precarity, deteriorating living and working conditions (see Delgado Wise, Citation2018).
5 For example, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR/Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela), North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), European Free Trade Agreement (EFTA) and EU Mobility Partnerships, to name but a few.
6 There are at present more than 20 UN agencies included in the GMG (http://www.globalmigrationgroup.org/gmg-members).
8 Within this context, member states share Migration and Development M&D practices compiled in the Platform for Partnerships (https://gfmd.org/pfp).
9 These were the 2008 GFMD/CSD in Manila ‘Protecting and Empowering Migrants for Development’, and the 2012 GFMD/CSD in Port Louis ‘Enhancing the Human Development of Migrants and their Contribution to the Development of Communities and States’.
10 The GFMD Summit Themes are available at https://gfmd.org.
11 The THP ‘is an independent, not-for-profit organisation, which brings together diverse stakeholders to seek solutions to migration and refugee challenges’ and ‘specialises in innovative collaborations in the nexus between business, cities & migration’. It is a global network of over 4000 individuals, public and civil society organisations and institutions around the world, including the IOM, World Economic Forum (WEF), employers’ confederations, cities, corporations such as Siemens, IBM and Manpower, to name but a few (thehagueprocess.org).
12 GFMD 2014–2015, Republic of Turkey, Chair in Office, Final Concept Note (https://gfmd.org/docs/turkey-2014-2015).
13 Concept Paper GFMD 2016 (https://gfmd.org/docs/bangladesh-2016).
15 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/the-world-needs-qualitative-easing-and-business-must-lead/.
16 Many of these actually reflect various CSOs’ claims for a rights-based approach to migration. Thus, SDG 5 promises gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, and target 5.2 envisions to ‘eliminate forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation’. Goal 8 promises ‘sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’, target 8.7 foresees ‘to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour’ and target 8.8 ‘to protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment.’ To meet Goal 10 focused on the reduction of inequalities between and within countries, ‘orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies’, and the facilitation of remittances, free trade and investments are specified as specific targets. (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs). To promote just, peaceful and inclusive societies and build ‘effective, accountable institutions’ is stated as one of the SDGs (Goal 16) for itself, as well as a necessary condition for the realization of sustainable development.
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Branka Likić-Brborić
Branka Likić-Brborić is professor designate in ethnicity and migration at REMESO, Linköping University. She obtained her PhD in Economic History from Uppsala University in 2003. In 2012, she was promoted to associate professor in political science at the Department of Government, Uppsala University. She co-edited Migration, precarity and global governance: Challenges and opportunities for labour (Oxford University Press, 2015).