The “Migration-Development Nexus” Revisited from a Rights Perspective

Abstract

This paper provides a conceptual discussion of the inter-linkages between rights-based approaches to development and economic migration. Rather than focusing on a legalistic understanding of migrants' rights, the starting point of this paper is the perspective of political processes involved in voicing and claiming rights by incorporating a transnational and activist perspective to assess the potential for enhancing the lives of migrant workers, their families and multiple communities. The paper starts with a summary of the major shifts in contemporary migration trends and concomitant policy concerns, to then move on to discuss the ‘old’ and ‘new’ aspects of the migration-development nexus in view of the implications for migrants' rights. A brief general discussion of rights-based approaches is followed by the attempt to bring developmental, transnational and activist perspectives on migrants' rights together—a necessity to advance the discursive and policy agenda to the benefit of foreign workers, as argued here.

Nicola Piper is Senior Lecturer at the Swansea University, Department of Geography, and Associate Director of the Centre for Migration Policy Research.

The original version of this paper was presented at the International Conference entitled International Migration, Multi-Focal Livelihoods and Human Security: Perspectives from Europe, Asia and Africa held at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, August 30–31, 2007.

Notes

1. The debate on the relationship between migration and development per se is not new. It started in the 1960s and since then it has undergone various stages with regard to the different issues at the center of the debate and analytical frameworks used (Faist 2008).

2. Johnston relates this to his discussion of citizenship and I extend this here to a broader human rights discussion.

3. This figure has been revised in the recent report by the General Secretary to 191 million as of 2005 (UN 2006). These numbers include refugees and displaced persons, but they do not capture irregular migrants who often escape official accounting.

4. There are critical voices, however, who argue that this reflects the colonial history of population policies on which the “sedentary presumption” of development discourse today is based (Bakewell 2007).

5. Actual impact of migration on social change is hotly debated and there are contradictory findings depending on specific contexts (see Bovenkerk 1981 and Conway and Potter 2007).

6. Don Flynn, director of the Migrant Rights Network/UK, oral presentation, Civic Forum on Migration and Development, Brussels, June 5–6, 2007.

7. On terminology, it has to be noted here that the phrase “migrant NGO” denotes a NGO run by nonmigrants, whereas “migrant associations” are organizations run by migrants or former migrants themselves.

8. Other strategies include investment policies designed to attract and to channel economic remittances and boost local development.

9. This statement is no longer available on-line.

10. The full text can be found on http://www.unhrchr.ch/html/menu3/b/74.htm.

11. In 2000, ten countries in Latin America had passed some form of dual nationality or citizenship including Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay; only four countries had such provisions prior to 1991 (Jones-Correa 1998; Levitt and S⊘rensen 2004). Other countries recognize dual membership selectively, with specific signatories (like China, India, etc.). Countries such as Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and the Philippines allow the expatriate vote (Levitt and S⊘rensen 2004).

12. This statement was prepared for the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, held between 14–15 September 2006 in New York, but is not available on-line.