ABSTRACT
Opportunities and aspirations for improved well-being have been the key drivers of migration throughout human history. “(B)eing able to decide where to live is a key element of human freedom” (UNDP 2009:1), and freedom is, as argued by Amartya Sen in his seminal work (1999), essential for development. The distribution of opportunities throughout the world, however, is “highly unequal” (UNDP 2009:18) and becoming increasingly so. For foreign migrant workers (whom this chapter focuses upon), such inequality is due to two main reasons: (i) a restrictive and highly selective policy framework practiced globally, and (ii) limited access to various kinds of resources which would enable migrant workers' physical movement and therefore enhance their mobility. Barriers are especially high for people with low skills (or who are classified as such), as policies tend to favour the admission of the better educated and the highly qualified. Where active recruitment of the low skilled is practiced — which these days occurs mainly in the context of temporary contract or seasonal migration schemes — the bundle of rights and entitlements they are provided with are usually far fewer than those granted to the highly skilled. When the low skilled resort to methods or channels of migration deemed “illegal” in order to circumvent the physical and legal barriers to their mobility, the rights they have as “unauthorised” or “irregular” migrants are next to none. As a result they are at high risk to be subjected to abusive and exploitative practices (ICFTU-APRO 2003). In other words, admission and treatment are two crucial elements affecting the positive outcomes of migration for individuals, sending and receiving communities. Given the complex axes of differentiation between groups of migrants based on skill and educational level, country of origin and gender (Kofman 2008), “vast inequalities characterize not only the freedom to move but also the distribution of gains from movement” (UNDP 2009:10).
