Realizing the Global Compact for and with Migrants
The outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020 puts on spotlight the growing vulnerability of migrants everywhere. From possible infection to their employment threatened with the economic downturn, from curtailment of their rights and freedoms in the workplace to racial-profiling and xenophobic attacks, migrants belong to the biggest sections of the international community gravely affected by the virus. How governments, both origin and host, respond to the worsening conditions of migrants has yet to be seen.
This situation strengthens the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants’ take on highlighting the important role of grassroots migrants in the implementation of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM).
This year, the regional review of the GCM implementation will commence. National governments that committed to implement the GCM will present the progress of their plans. The United Nations formed last year the Network on Migration to oversee the review and support governments in the GCM implementation.
In mid-February, the Network invited national, regional and international civil society organizations (CSOs) to a consultation to determine important migration issues to be taken up during the review as well as ways in which CSOs can meaningfully participate in the process. Inclusive and meaningful CSO participation was the main message coming out of the consultation. While this as a positive frame and a clear challenge to the review process, it is limiting because one important criterion was absent in the ongoing conversation – the grassroots migrants.
For the APMM, grassroots migrants are the major stakeholders in the GCM process. As the Compact may not be legally binding, what comes out of the States’ implementation of the GCM will impact on migrants and their families, the protection of their human rights and dignity, and the realization of the strategic dream of making migration a matter of choice and not forced. Roughly 62.1 million migrant lives in the region are sure to be affected even if most, if not all, of them have not heard of the GCM.
With this, migrants – domestic workers, factory workers, marriage migrants, young migrants, migrants in agriculture and informal sector – deserve to be in the GCM process, not only just at its receiving end. While the regional review is mainly a State-led process, governments need to engage and converse with migrants who are by virtue of their being are the experts on migration. Capacitated, informed and involved, migrants are the best resource in determining gaps in legislation and the justice system, identifying problems in the migration process, what constitutes labor trafficking and slavery, providing critique to management of migration for development, sharing best practices of solidarity and accountability, and addressing the root causes of forced migration.
As a start, host governments can realize inclusive and meaningful participation of migrants by relaxing restrictive policies and enabling a safe environment for migrants to engage without fear. Origin governments, on the other hand, need to socialize their national implementation plans with all migrants’ families and returned migrants at home as well as their nationals living and working overseas. CSOs can likewise capacitate migrants and find means for the latter’s participation, even if it meant, as one CSO representative in the consultation said, “giving up their seat at the table”.
The COVID-19 outbreak provides us with opportunity to weigh in on how much, or how little, migrants figure in the national response of governments to the virus. This is a good starting point in looking into their implementation plans for the GCM and finding a way forward for not only civil society groups but especially grassroots migrant organizations to become part of the GCM conversation.
In the end, migrants should be front and center of the GCM implementation and review.