The exceptional situation brought in by COVID-19 has made the nations across the world fight against the consequential effects of the global pandemic. Ipso facto, international migrants are in a huge crisis as the sealing of international boundaries has rendered them ‘homeless.’ Needless to say, the undocumented migrant workers are facing severe repercussions. Thus, the significance of looking into the global and the regional outlines of migration has been realized. In this light, a joint webinar was organized by Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) and Cross Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants (CCRM) on “Global and Regional Migration Governance during COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Among the eminent panelists, Nicola Piper, Professor of International Migration and Founding Director of Sydney Asia Pacific Migration Centre at the University of Sydney focused on the Global level of governance. Prof. Piper, who has been an observer in a number of global forums and processes including negotiations of various global instruments in the last 20 years spoke not only about the precarious conditions the migrant workers are in during this pandemic, but also threw light on how the crisis has diverted our attention towards cracks within the governance structure.
Global Migration Governance and Workers’ Rights
According to Prof. Piper, “Although we have come a long way in terms of achieving a deeper understanding of what migration entails, (from everyone’s perspective involved, including the migrants), in political and institutional terms, we still have unfortunately a dysfunctional global migration governance system and this malfunctioning character or state of affairs has been exposed loud and clearly during the COVID-19 pandemic.” In order to substantiate the above mentioned statement, she focused on three aspects of global migration governance system, the crux of which lay in answering three questions- what is being governed? How is global migration governed? And, who governs the issues related to migration?
In answering the question, ‘what is being governed?’ Prof. Piper talked about the aim of governance projects. She highlighted on the fact that rights based approach to migration takes a back seat in the major political exercises across the globe since migration management is highly prioritized. She further focused on the inability of the state to implement the rights based migration policies as she said, “rights based approach is of course rooted in existing normative framework which is actually sound and comprehensive if those norms were widely ratified and implemented which they are not.”
COVID-19 has added a Layer to the Migrant Workers’ Sufferings
In order to answer the question ‘how is migration governed?’ she pointed out the flaws in the system. She said that since 1990s, non-binding instruments have been instrumental in governing migration which ensures that the conventions of the migrant workers remain underratified by the destination countries lying in the Global North. But, even though the countries have ratified the instruments, there remains a laxity in implementing those. The question that she raised as to whether the correct rights of the migrants are being addressed or not, enabled her to bring to light the difficulties that the migrant workers are facing in seeking justice and organizing themselves politically. There are also barriers in undocumented migrant workers’ path to gaining protections during COVID-19. Hence, she said that immigration authorities come in their way to deport the undocumented migrant workers even before the labour disputes are settled down.
Constricting her focus in Asia, she said that Asia prefers a governance model based on the bilateral system. Considering the ignorance of rights based approach in bilateral agreements, she said with a sigh, “a lot of bilateral labour agreements are notoriously difficult to negotiate for countries of origin and unsurprisingly rarely contain any clauses of rights.”
Need to Address the Gaps in the Governance Structure
In answering the question, ‘who governsthe issues of migration?’ she focused on the International Organizations like the ILO which work on the field of labour employment. But, the major question according her is, from where does these organizations originate? She said, “states are behind the origins of such organizations.” This is because the states are instrumental in designing and funding them. The wealthy nations play a pivotal role in providing funds to these organizations. But, most of the money is channelized towards management and border control leaving little amount to govern the workers’ workplaces. COVID-19 has worsened the workers’ situation as the undocumented migrant workers who are employed in the essential sectors of the economy are suffering from inaccessibility to social security. The bilateral agreementsthus aren’t devoid of flaws as there is hardly any clause that requires handing emergency situations such as this. The situation thus calls for a need to implement the policies written on paper. According to Prof. Piper, there remains a gap between theory and practice with respect to labour rights.
Prof. Piper concluded her talk by a positive note. She said that, if we keep aside the negative effects that COVID-19 has produced by exposing the flaws in the frameworks of migration governance, we will see that it has actually given a chance to the shattered global food supply and health-care system to improve itself. The pandemic has also shown the importance of global migration. Thus, she asserted that since a progressive economy rests on the sweat of these migrant workers, ensuring migrant workers’ good health is a universal necessity.
Reported by Srija Mukhopadhyay. About the Reporter: Srija Mukhopadhyay is currently a final year master’s student in the Department of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. Her research interests include history of empires, decolonization, international migration, international security, foreign policy, cultural diplomacy, gender and feminism.