Migration Workers And Fundamental Freedoms

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a mass exodus of India’s migrant workers from the cities back to the villages. This book explores the social conditions and concerns around health, labour, migration, and gender that were thrown up as a result of this forced migration. The book examines the failings of the public health systems and the state response to address the humanitarian crisis which unfolded in the middle of the pandemic. It highlights how the pandemic-lockdown disproportionately affected marginalised social groups – Dalits and the Adivasi communities, women and Muslim workers. The book reflects on the socio-economic vulnerabilities of migrant workers, their rights to dignity, questions around citizenship, and the need for robust systems of democratic and constitutional accountability. The chapters also critically look at the gendered vulnerabilities of women and non-cis persons in both public and private spaces, the exacerbation of social stratification and prejudices, incidents of intimidation by the administration and the police forces, and proposed labour reforms which might create greater insecurities for migrant workers. This important and timely book will be of great interest to researchers and students of sociology, public policy, development studies, gender studies, labour and economics, and law.

Are Human Rights for Migrants? Critical Reflections on the Status of Irregular Migrants in Europe and the United States examines upon the possibilities and limitations which arise from approaching the situation of migrants in human rights terms.

The UN Convention on Migrant Workers' Rights is the most comprehensive international treaty in the field of migration and human rights. Adopted in 1990 and entered into force in 2003, it sets a standard in terms of access to human rights for migrants. However, it suffers from a marked indifference: only forty states have ratified it and no major immigration country has done so. This highlights how migrants remain forgotten in terms of access to rights. Even though their labour is essential in the world economy, the non-economic aspect of migration – and especially migrants' rights – remain a neglected dimension of globalisation. This volume provides in-depth information on the Convention and on the reasons behind states' reluctance towards its ratification. It brings together researchers, international civil servants and NGO members and relies upon an interdisciplinary perspective that includes not only law, but also sociology and political science.

This book offers an accessible examination of the human rights of migrants in the context of the UN’s negotiations in 2018. This volume has two main contributions. Firstly, it is designed to inform the negotiations on the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration announced by the New York Declaration of the UN General Assembly on 19 September 2016. Second, it intends to assist officials, lawyers and academics to ensure that the human rights of migrants are fully respected by state authorities and international organisations and safeguarded by national and supranational courts across the globe. The overall objective of this book is to clarify problem areas which migrants encounter as non-citizens of the state where they are and how international human rights obligations of those states provide solutions. It defines the existing international human rights of migrants and provides the source of States’ obligations. In order to provide a clear and useful guide to the existing human rights of migrants, the volume examines these rights from the perspective of the migrant: what situations do people encounter as their status changes from citizen (in their own country) to migrant (in a foreign state), and how do human rights provide legal entitlements regarding their treatment by a foreign state? This book will be of much interest to students of migration, human rights, international law and international relations.

This publication aims to fill a significant knowledge gap on the human rights of irregular migrants. It seeks to describe barriers faced by irregular migrants in the exercise of such fundamental rights as the right to health, to education, to an adequate standard of living, to social security, and to just and favourable conditions of work, as well as trends and national policies, highlighting where possible examples of promising practice from around the world. It also draws attention to the guidance provided by international human rights law as well as related legal frameworks such as international labour law, and provides key messages on a human rights-based response to irregular migration.

Includes statistics.

Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: merit, Queen Mary University of London (Law Department), course: LLM, language: English, abstract: This paper examines two fundamental social rights belonging to irregular migrants: the right to work and the right to healthcare. Even though there is a lack of specific legal provisions directly applicable to this social category, the general ones, such as the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Political Rights, also concern undocumented migrants. They are analyzed from general to particular taking into consideration broad terms such as “all”, ‘every”, “everyone”, which include the specific category of undocumented migrants. The existent case law, although characterized by scarcity because of the migrants’ fear of being deported when lodging claims in courts, emphasizes the fact that this social category also has rights and these rights are recognized and defended in national and European courts. The obstacles in accessing fundamental rights are also analyzed. The practical implications are taken into consideration. Ideas to improve the exercise of fundamental rights to work and healthcare by irregular migrants are suggested at the end of every chapter. Being human beings, they have the right to social protection regardless of their status.

This publication examines the particular vulnerability of migrants to human rights abuses, and discusses the need to strengthen the recognition and protection of their human rights in international and national law, as well as in practice.