ABSTRACT
Children of noncitizens are entitled to those measures of protection required by their status as minors. Children of noncitizens without legal status may not be excluded from schools (UN Human Rights Committee 1986 ) 27 and schools that allow children of noncitizens to be educated in programs designed in their country of origin are welcome (Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination: Saudi Arabia 2003a ). Children of noncitizens – including children of asylum seekers and refugees and children who are themselves asylum seekers or refugees – may not be the subject of discrimination in the enjoyment of economic, social, and cultural rights such as access to education, health care, and social services (Committee on the Rights of the Child 2002 ). 28
Migrant workers are oft en treated as criminals or at least characterized as illegal. Migrants make convenient scapegoats for crime, unemployment, disease, and other social ills that usually result from domestic causes, including a lack of adequate government services. As a result, migrants are oft en subject to situations that force them to endure: housing and employment discrimination; abuse; arbitrary expulsion; and high-risk travel.
