Rights Of Migrants Research Articles

Analysing the Lived Experiences of Undocumented and Unaccompanied Child Migrants from Zimbabwe to South Africa

Zimbabwe’s socio-economic crisis post-2000 led to the emergence of new forms of livelihoods. Long- and short-term migration emerged as a survival strategy for over a million Zimbabweans who moved legally and illegally to countries such as South Africa, England, Botswana, Namibia, Canada and Australia. While migration in Zimbabwe has mainly been an adult pursuit, post-2000, there has been an increasing number of unaccompanied child migrants. Zimbabwean unaccompanied child migrants in South Africa provide important insights into how the socio-economic rights of children are central to understanding child migration. This article focuses on the lived experiences of undocumented and unaccompanied child migrants from Zimbabwe living in South Africa. It utilises a desk research approach to analyse how the socio-economic rights of child migrants are experienced in Zimbabwe and South Africa. Both states have failed to meet their national and international obligations to protect child migrants. The article highlights various forms of abuse undocumented child migrants from Zimbabwe experience in South Africa. The article concludes that both local and international law in South Africa fails to provide a balance between the competing interests of child protection and child autonomy.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR MUTUAL ASSIMILATION OF LABOR LAW REGULATIONS OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AND THE UAE IN CONDITIONS OF ACTIVATION OF MIGRATION FLOWS

The article deals with the problem associated with the development of bilateral relations between countries on the issues of ensuring the rights of labor migrants, analyzes the possibilities of mutual assimilation of labor law norms of the Russian Federation and the UAE in the context of increased migration flows. This topic is relevant in the light of the fact that the existing conventional mechanism of labor law is not able to provide the principle of universality in the regulation of labor relations, and therefore other approaches are needed to solve the problems of international labor law, which is especially important in the context of expanding migration flows. The problem that has arisen is due to the fact that modern international law is based on a system of international conventions, which demonstrates its inability to create universal legal norms suitable for effective interaction between countries in the field of labor migration. The lack of universality forces countries to look for other mechanisms of legal interaction in the field of labor relations, using, in particular, the possibilities of bilateral legal cooperation, one of which is the mutual assimilation of labor law norms. The article determines that the modern civilizational situation leads to the collapse of the system of international law, to an understanding of the need to form legal systems that meet the needs of each individual state. On these grounds, conditions arise for the development of two polar legal paradigms, where one of the lines of the “split” is the labor law issue, which becomes one of the elements in creating a political consensus between Russia and the UAE. The article shows the unity of the positions of Russia and the UAE on this issue, points out the need to assimilate the labor law norms of the Russian Federation and the UAE, considering the increase in the flow of labor migrants.

Ambivalent Resonance: Advocacy for Secure Status for Migrant Farm Workers in Spain, Italy and Canada during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Drawing on insights from scholarship on contentious action frames, this article examines the framing of demands for social justice for migrant farmworkers in Spain, Italy and Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus particularly on how activists in each country aligned their action frames with prevalent public discourses on the essential contribution migrants make to agricultural production, the need to guarantee “health for all,” and “increased vulnerability” of migrants’ lives during the global health crisis. Using these diagnostic frames, activists in the three countries called for secure legal status for all migrants. Drawing on the literature on contentious action frames, we then analyze if action frames advanced by activists during the COVID-19 pandemic “resonated” with the understanding of these issues by policymakers. We challenge an approach to understanding resonance in binary terms as either present or absent. Instead, we introduce the notion of “ambivalent resonance” to draw attention to the fact that some frames are accepted only partially or only by some policymakers but not the others, as was the case in the three countries under study. We then situate this ambivalent resonance in the context of immigration priorities and recent trends in immigration policy development in these three countries and suggest that activists can build on ambivalences to advance migrant rights to status.

VIII International American Studies Congress “200th Anniversary of Latin America - Globalization, Political and Social Processes during the Pandemic”

From August 22 to 26, 2022, the VIII International Congress of American Studies was held in Rio de Janeiro. This congress focused on the most pressing issues in the contemporary Latin American agenda - globalization and regionalization, economic development, impact of the covid-19 pandemic on social, political, economic, and demographic processes. As a part of the congress, the round table “Migration, Migrants, Migration Policy in the Era of the covid-19: Trends, Consequences, Conclusions” was held. Not only Latin-American researchers, but also scientists from the leading Russian, European, Asian universities and research institutes participated in the round table. They discussed transformations of the international migration and migration policy under the pandemic, ways to ensure the rights of migrants and refugees, state policy measures aimed at restoring internal and international mobility, interstate cooperation and the role of international institutions in ensuring safe, ordered and legal migration.

Temporalidad en la regulación de migrantes que ingresan a la República de ecuador

The present study focuses on analyzing the temporality of the regularization of migrants entering the country, taking as a reference the current regulations and the actions carried out by the National Government through the executive branch. Its development is based on the qualitative methodological approach, of a documentary and bibliographic type, which is carried out on legislation and doctrine as sources of law. The results obtained indicate that the State has addressed one of the largest migratory flows, being a country that has received the largest number of migrants and many of them in an irregular situation, which requires the intervention of the human mobility authorities to respond. appropriate to citizens in this situation. In this way, it is concluded that the State has designed plans for the regularization of migrants in an extraordinary way, in which an amnesty process has mediated and that they have generated for the second time the granting of exceptional visas, whose temporality has been regulated by means of Executive decrees, which comply with the current needs of human mobility and whose periods of application are allowed to offer efficient and effective solutions to guarantee the exercise of the human rights of migrants.

COVID-19 vaccine equity and the right to health for displaced Venezuelans in Latin America.

Given the magnitude of Venezuelan displacement in Latin America, there is a need to assess how migrants were, and will continue to be, addressed in COVID-19 vaccination policies. To explore migration status as a dimension of vaccine equity in Latin America and in relation to international human rights, we assessed national vaccination plans, peer-reviewed, and gray literature published between January 2020 and June 2021. Three key rights-related concerns were found to restrict the health rights of migrants in the region: 1) lack of prioritization of migrants in vaccine distribution; 2) onerous documentation requirements to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination; and (3) how pervasive anti-migrant discrimination limited equitable health care access. While international human rights law prohibits against discrimination based on migration status, few countries analyzed realized their obligations to provide equal access to COVID-19 vaccines to non-citizens, including displaced Venezuelans. Especially for migrants and displaced people, effective and sustainable vaccination strategies for COVID-19 and future pandemics in Latin America must be guided not only by epidemiological risk but also seek to align with human rights obligations. To achieve this, States must also take special measures to facilitate vaccine access for communities facing systemic discrimination, exclusion, and marginalization.

Accountability across Borders: Migrant Rights in North America ed. by Xóchitl Bada and Shannon Gleeson (review)

Accountability across Borders: Migrant Rights in North America ed. by Xóchitl Bada and Shannon Gleeson (review)

Stranger Citizens: Migrant Influence and National Power in the Early American Republic

Even for established early modern nation-states, the question of citizenship, the rights it confers, and the rights of resident aliens and migrants were subjective political sticky wickets. For a new nation, congealed from the Atlantic mélange of the British Empire, the issue was still more mucky. Add to that the universal and global nature of America's natural rights' revolutionary philosophy, the emergent American republican identity that thrust new political duties and expectations upon average men (usually white), and the new nation's need for open trade and an expanding labor force, and the issue clouded even further. John McNelis O'Keefe candidly touts the relevancy of this study given the policies of the previous administration, but it is just as relevant for the prior 240 years. In a republic such as the United States, the rights and duties of citizens, residents, and migrants are paramount yet evolving concerns in which the powerless contest with the powerful for the control of vital resources—among them their lives, liberty, and their pursuits of happiness.

Why courts are the life buoys of migrant rights: anti-immigrant pressure, variation in judicial independence, and asylum recognition rates

ABSTRACT A rise in anti-immigrant pressure can reduce asylum recognition rates, irrespective of individuals’ protection needs. Independent courts, which often act as a safeguard of migrant rights vis-à-vis such pressures, have been subject to increasing political interference. Yet, we know very little about how variation in the level of judicial independence – especially among lower courts – affects policy outcomes. In this paper, we assess the impact of anti-immigrant pressure and judicial independence on first and final instance refugee status determination decisions across 28 European Union member states over a ten-year period (2008–2018). We find that the relative independence of courts makes the biggest difference in asylum recognition rates at first and final instance when levels of anti-immigrant pressure are particularly high. This effect can be demonstrated not just regarding asylum appeals, but also for first instance decisions, suggesting that independent courts can have a liberal ‘foreshadowing effect’ on national asylum agencies.

“Yo no sé caminar Comodoro”. Pluralismo jurídico y garantía de derechos para personas migrantes en contextos de desigualdades sociales (Patagonia, Argentina)

“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO WALK COMODORO”: LEGAL PLURALISM AND GUARANTEE OF RIGHTS FOR MIGRANTS IN THE CONTEXTS OF SOCIAL INEQUALITIES (PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA) In this paper, we analyze the difficulties in access to social rights in Argentina by migrant groups from neighboring countries, particularly women from the Andean world (Bolivia), in the justice field. In an ethnographic approach and with contributions from the decolonial perspective, we present various situations that Quechua‑speaking women experience in the Cuenca del Golfo San Jorge (Argentina) which exemplify a set of restrictions and violence that operate in the context of social inequalities. Thus, some social practices linked to differential ways of understanding life in society and justice stand out, resignified in the migratory context that accounts for the agency of migrant groups. State institutions must initiate a process of transformation focused on legal pluralism, the intercultural approach, and the intersectionality of gender perspectives.

Anarcho-Cosmopolitanism: Towards a New Ethos of Hospitality

This paper develops a new understanding of hospitality on the basis of an anarchist philosophy of cosmopolitanism. It is argued that anarchism – in its radical critique of the principle of sovereignty and sovereign ipseity – is primarily a philosophy and politics of hospitality. The argument proceeds in five key steps. Firstly, the relationship between ontological anarchism (Schürmann and Levinas) and political anarchism (Bakunin, Kropotkin, Proudhon, Godwin) is explored. Secondly, anarchism’s critique of nation state sovereignty is linked to a radical cosmopolitanism based on cross-border solidarity, mutual aid, and human rights activism, including the defence of the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. Thirdly, I show how the anarchic subject cannot be reduced to a fixed or definable identity with closed borders, but, rather, embodies an attitude of hospitality towards the Other and an openness to being transformed by this encounter. On this basis, I aim to develop an anarchist ethics formulated around the idea of care – for the other, both human and non-human, for the world, for the natural environment (Four) – and an alternative cosmopolitan ethical and political horizon (Five).

“The Food Delivered is More Valuable Than My Life”: Understanding the Platform Precarity of Online Food-Delivery Work in China

This article investigates the precarious labour conditions of Chinese food-delivery drivers in the platform economy. Drawing on one year of ethnographic fieldwork where the author worked as a food-delivery driver in Shanghai, the three key forces producing precarity in the platform labour regime are explored: (i) the platform circumvents its employer responsibilities for drivers by outsourcing the labour services of food delivery to third-party labour-hires companies; (ii) predatory algorithmic management is leveraged by the platform to control the labour process for excessive exploitation; and (iii) the institutional deprivation of citizenship rights of the rural migrants converts drivers into urban denizens with a vulnerable socio-economic labour environment. These determinants combine to produce low-paid, insecure, uncertain, and dangerous working conditions which food delivery drivers have limited power to resist both at individual and collective levels. Building on these findings, this article argues that the peculiar intersection of bogus triangular employment relations, predatory algorithmic control, and the subservient citizenship of rural migrants, produces precarity in the platform labour regime. The article highlights the role of the state and management in producing the precarity experienced by Chinese food-delivery drivers and contributes to understanding the work precarity of the platform economy in the digital age.

Migtech, fintech and fair migration in Malaysia: addressing the protection gap between migrant rights and labour policies

This paper suggests that digitalisation fills the protection gap between labour policies and practices on migrant rights. Digital technologies have shaped how the Malaysian state views its migrant protection policy. Malaysia has tapped into the potential of migration technology (migtech) and financial technology (fintech) to address various challenges faced in its labour migration governance. Malaysia, a migrant-receiving country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), has improved its migrant protection policy by digitalising migration management governance, wage payments, and financial services for migrant workers. This paper thus contributes to ongoing debates on fair migration by looking at how technology interventions could bridge the long-standing protection gap resulting from states’ institutional limitations, defective migration systems, unethical recruitment by intermediaries, and implementation gaps (i.e. discrepancies between labour legislation and implementation by state and non-state actors). Digitalisation addresses migrant protection gaps through preventing unethical recruitment, offsetting barriers to regular migration, monitoring labour law infringements, and ensuring employer compliance with immigration and labour laws.

The promise of linguistic equity for migrants in Australian courtrooms: a cross-disciplinary perspective

ABSTRACT In human rights studies, much has been written and studied about civil, economic, political and social rights. Little has been explored about the linguistic human rights of migrants and minorities in justice-critical settings. Situated at the nexus of migration, human rights and sociolinguistic studies, this short essay walks through the current perspectives of linguistic equity for migrants and minorities in Australian interpreter-mediated courtroom encounters. The essay leaves the readers with three reflections: (1) clarifications on the use of nuanced terms such as linguistic equality and linguistic equity, (2) updated knowledge of the difficulties in achieving accuracy for migrants and minorities in court interpreting and (3) refreshed understanding of role-related practical challenges in the professional life of interpreters in court and beyond.

Challenging the boundaries of accountability: strategic litigation and jurisdiction in European migration control policies

ABSTRACT Current European border policies both evade accountability and perpetuate the violation of human rights by state actors abroad. The ongoing case of S.S. v Italy offers an opportunity to challenge these existing migratory frameworks and reassess conceptions of jurisdiction. The court's decision will be crucial in determining whether extraterritorial exercises of sovereign power can still fall within a nation's jurisdiction. This paper argues that adopting the Functional Jurisdiction Model, which emphasises factual and legal elements over location, would increase accountability for state actions abroad. Although this approach may remain susceptible to existing efforts by states to avoid judicial scrutiny, it is essential to address current gaps in accountability and uphold human rights principles. The influence of international human rights law in shaping national policy cannot be ignored, and implementing a new understanding of jurisdiction can better protect the rights of migrants and ensure that sovereign authorities are held responsible for extraterritorial human rights abuses.

Migration and health right: Probabilistic estimate of the factors that impact on health right of the migrant population, Peru 2019-2021.

The study aims to identify factors associated with the violation of the right to health of the regular migrant population with respect to the nonmigrant population in Peru during the period 2019-2021, based on the complaints of health services users. It is a three-year cross-sectional and retrospective study on a total population of 122,505 complainants to the National Superintendency of Health (SUSALUD). The types of health rights used were those established in Peruvian Law No. 29414. An unordered multinomial probability model was used to estimate the probability of belonging to five types of violated rights based on the regular migrant and nonmigrant population, and the exogenous variables that affect this probability. The individual significance tests of the model, the tests for combining categories and the test of independence of irrelevant alternatives by means of the Wald and Hausman-McFadden tests were previously taken. The results indicated an increase in complaints from regular migrants of 5.6% in the 2019-2021 period unlike nonmigrants who had a decrease of 12.2%. The greatest probability that health rights of regular migrants are violated refers to access to information and the right to care and recovery, where their probability of violation is 27.7% and 25.4%, respectively (p-v < 0.05, CI = 95%). Likewise, health rights are more likely to be violated if they are women; if they are adults (41 years old on average); if they do not possess any type of health insurance; if they use Peruvian Ministry of Health (MINSA) services; and if they are located in metropolitan cities, such as Lima and Callao.

СОВРЕМЕННЫЕ ПОДХОДЫ К ОЦЕНКЕ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЙ МИГРАЦИОННОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ

The concept of the efficiency of state migration policy is explored in the context of methodological approaches to its assessment. The main methods and necessary conditions for conducting a comprehensive and sectoral assessment of the efficiency of this policy are analyzed. The assumption about the multivariance of modern methodological techniques and tools for assessing efficiency as a kind of indicator of the level of complexity and multidimensionality of the ongoing state migration policy is substantiated. The content of two main blocks of understanding the efficiency of government strategies in the field of managing migration flows is summarized: the migration policy index and the migrant integration policy index. Based on the analysis, it is argued that the fundamental difference between the campaigns under consideration is the focus on realizing the rights of migrants or the priority of achieving economic benefits and ensuring immigration security. It turns out that the pluralism of methods for assessing the effectiveness of state migration policy is due to the increasing complexity of the responsibilities of state authorities in the sphere of regulating internal and external migration flows. Therefore, the multivariance of performance assessments serves as an indicator of the level of complexity of the management function of state institutions.

Comunicação e cidadania de refugiados venezuelanos em abrigos na fronteira Brasil-Venezuela

Abstract This article analyzes Venezuelan refugees’ communication and citizenship experiences in shelters of Operação Acolhida on the Brazil-Venezuela border. Based on the theoretical framework of communication, citizenship and migrations, we reflect on the agency of Venezuelan refugees to bypass the limitations of access to communication resources in the context of the tensions between control and mobility of migrants in border areas. The methodology includes observation and interviews with refugees and professionals that work in those shelters. The results indicate the relevance of the debate on communication as a right of migrants in relation to the access and distribution of communication resources.

Availability of human rights and the case study of irregular economic migrants in Thailand and Hungary

This study discusses that Thailand and Hungary embrace the availability of human rights in an unsustainable form, specifically in the case of irregular economic migrants. Over years, Europe and Southeast Asia have witnessed extensive human migration within the region due to scarcities, poverties, and climate changes. Humans migrate for work. However, despite the universal conduct of human rights for migrants, irregular migrant workers in Thailand and Hungary hardly ever earn such rights. This is because migration issues filter into the talk of both countries’ national security. In fact, economic migrants are interpreted as a threat that potentially causes multi-layered difficulties in the society for a long run. This study reveals that Thailand’s and Hungary’s migration management is subject to the ad-hocracy and situation-based policies that are instituted in these countries as security mechanisms to prevent the formation of transnational issues and social obstacles. They oversimplify the supposed existence of human rights as in the distinction of individual statuses – legal rights and moral rights. As such, it further effects the unfeasibility of human rights. This research has been conducted with qualitative methodology and used the theory of the push and pull model (1996) and Galtung’s violent triangle (1990).

Strengthening locally led research to respond to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of migrants from Venezuela and Central America.

Strengthening locally led research to respond to the sexual and reproductive health and rights of migrants from Venezuela and Central America.