Temporary economic migration and rights activism: an organizational perspective

Abstract

Temporary contract migration schemes have experienced a revival in Europe. Such schemes mean that a significant number of migrant workers have limited access to rights and entitlements, let alone full citizenship. The temporary nature of their migration poses obstacles to traditional ways of organizing workers. This changing landscape of migration dynamics, thus, requires a changing landscape of migrant rights activism also. The focus in this paper is on collective activism by social justice organizations and their engagement with, and handling of, the subject matter of migrant workers’ rights. Based on insights from scholars working on social movements and transnational advocacy networks, I argue that a transnational and trans-institutional perspective is required in addressing temporary migrants’ socioeconomic and legal insecurities, and it is the concept of the ‘network’ which captures best these interactions between multiple actors at multiple sites.

Keywords:

• Temporary migration
• rights activism
• organizations
• networking
• transnational
• trans-institutional

Notes

1. For a fairly detailed account of the various policy schemes in those regions, see Ruhs (2006).

2. However, some European countries also prohibit migrant domestic workers from reuniting with their families at their destinations. Notable exceptions are Italy and Spain. And Asian governments tacitly allow the presence of migrant workers over longer periods (often whole families in an undocumented manner) without official recognition of settlement and official integration policies (Piper 2008b).

3. According to a more recent report by the Migration Advisory Committee (2008), however, it appears as if migrants (at least as far as those from the A8 countries are concerned) are more evenly distributed throughout the UK economy than suggested by the TUC report.

4. This is often the case for local domestic workers as much as for foreign domestic workers, hence not a migration problem but a ‘sector’-specific problem. The inadequate legislative coverage of domestic workers will be addressed by the ILC (ILO's annual congress) in 2010 when beginning the drafting work for a new Homeworker Convention.

5. A statement published by PICUM (Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants) on the EU plans to impose employer sanctions (dated 15 April 2008) points to this particular problem also (see www.picum.org; accessed 19 May 2008).

6. For a detailed literature review, see Piper (2007).

7. The notion of ‘portable justice’ captures the problem when undocumented migrants or temporary labour migrants are deported or sent back to their countries of origin upon completion of their contracts, but were not paid their wages, and the difficulties involved in claiming grievances in labour courts or labour standards offices when physically absent (Caron 2005). This problem, thus, has a transnational element (Piper 2008a).

8. For a detailed review of the literature, see Piper and Uhlin (2004).

9. Useful references can be found on http://www.crimt.org/2eSite_renouveau/Samedi_PDF/Cradden_Hall_Jones.pdf.

10. Such regional or sub-regional configurations are conducive for triggering transnational collaboration among unions. There is evidence from unions in NAFTA countries US, Canada and Mexico also but without reference to migrant workers (Bacon 2001).

11. As part of the EU enlargement, the following Eastern European countries joined the EU on 1 May, 2004: Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Solvakia and Solvenia.