Friday, December 18 is the 25th year anniversary of the UN General Assembly adopting the international convention on the protection of the rights of migrant workers and members of their families (resolution 45/158). But it was only on December 4 2000 that they adopted a resolution making December 18 a day to commemorate the contributions of the ever-growing numbers of migrants around the world. However most rich migrant receiving countries have not signed on to the convention.
UN statistics report that there are 232 million international migrants today. The remittances, or the money these migrants send to their families in their home countries reached US$401 billion last year. It is because of this massive circulation of money that countries and governments came up with the notion that migration contributes to countries’ development.
What is this notion? It is that migrants’ remittances play a very significant role in their country of origin’s economies. They provide new opportunities for economic development through the increased incomes and purchasing power of receiving families. But the issue is bigger than the increased incomes. It creates pressure in the family due to long separation and while it’s a “band-aid” solution to unemployment or underemployment, it does not reduce poverty as a whole.
In 2006, a United Nation High Level Dialogue (UNHLD) on migration was held in which receiving countries explored the links between migration and development. In that meeting, different states vowed not to make migration a substitute for genuine development. For instance, when the first Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) was convened after that UNHLD 2006, its avowed objective was “to enhance the positive impact of migration on development (and vice versa) by adopting a more consistent policy approach, identifying new instruments and best practices, exchanging know-how and experience about innovative tactics and methods and, finally, establishing cooperative links between the various actors involved” (Global Forum on Migration and Development website).
The potential of migration to contribute to development was thoroughly deliberated and promoted, but no similar effort was made to look into how migration, is in reality, a result of underdevelopment. The meeting showed how the UN and its member states, international financial institutions, intergovernmental bodies and even some civil society organizations are choosing to take the pragmatic view that since migration is already present, it might as well be maximized for its potential benefits.
The meeting showed how the UN and its member states, international financial institutions, intergovernmental bodies and even some civil society organizations are choosing to take the pragmatic view that since migration is already present, it might as well be maximized for its potential benefits.
Current discussions on migration and development are focused on migration as a process. Therefore, most of the recommendations and actions implemented revolved around better management of the migration process – from recruitment to sending of remittance. An extreme result of this framework on migration is the linking of migration and security concerns that is currently implemented in the forms of militarization of borders, arbitrary surveillance and tracking of movements, restrictive visa policies and procedures, and even development of unjust prejudices towards migrants.
While there are sporadic discussions on the rights and welfare of migrants, these are not sustained and no effective action is undertaken, thus putting to question the seriousness of states to address the violations of the rights of migrants.
The actual negative impacts to development of reliance on migration far outweigh its potential benefits.
The influx of large sums of foreign currency fosters over reliance of countries of origin on remittance for economic growth instead of adopting development plans that are dependent on national capacity, responsive to national needs, and sustainable in the long-term. The development of labor export programs and the overemphasis on remittance to inflate the GDP reflect this overreliance on migration to address the structural problems of poverty, unemployment.
Migration today is still very much a product of underdevelopment. Poverty, unemployment, political conflict, wars and general displacement of peoples including displacement due to environmental factors are the major causes of migration. To put migration in the development agenda is to perpetuate the current migration practice that is not a free exercise of the right to migrate but an economic, political and social issue that sees underdevelopment worsened by the neoliberal economic paradigm brokered by the rich and powerful countries of the world.
As we commemorate this year’s International Migrants Day, social movements and migrant advocates need to call for a development agenda that is equitable and sustainable that, for the migrant workers, will resolve structural weaknesses and imbalances that create and perpetuate the condition where people migrate out of necessity and not of free choice.
Marco Luciano is the Migrante International coordinator for Canada
December 17, 2015