Make GCM For and With Migrants
APMM participates in Expert Group Meeting on the Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2024
The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) was invited to the Expert Group Meeting on the Asia-Pacific Migration Report 2024. Co-organized by the UN Economic and Social Commission in Asia and the Pacific and the Regional UN Network on Migration for Asia and the Pacific, the meeting took place at the United Nations Conference Center in Bangkok, Thailand and online from 26 to 27 June 2024.
The Asia Pacific Migration Report 2024 will provide an overview of the status of implementation of the 23 objectives of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration in Asia and the Pacific. It is being drafted to inform the intergovernmental Asia-Pacific Regional Review of Implementation of the GCM, tentatively scheduled for the first quarter of 2025.
Dewi Amelia, Advocacy Officer of the APMM, attended the meeting as one of the discussants in Session 6 of the meeting entitled Improving value- driven and evidence-based policymaking and public debate and enhancing cooperation on migration (addressing GCM objectives 1, 3, 7, 17 and 23) (chapter 5) and provided comments on the draft report.
In her presentation, Dewi mentioned that APMM’s interventions on chapter 5 of the draft report are based on APMM’s work as well as from APMM’s partner organisations, mainly migrant workers, marriage migrants, immigrants and returned migrants and their families, and fellow migrant-serving institutions, faith-based organisations, and advocacy groups for migrants’ rights.
In the closing of her presentation, Dewi said that “the APMM advocates for meaningful participation of migrants in the GCM process and all advocacy spaces as well. Grassroots migrants are the primary stakeholders in the migration discourse and like many of us here, are experts too. They are the first to experience the challenges of labor migration, experience the impacts of agreements and policies, and communicate their demands.”
Below is the speech presentation of Dewi Amelia:
Making the Global Compact for Grassroots Migrants, With Grassroots Migrants
Presentation by Dewi Amelia Eka Putri, Advocacy Officer, Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants
Thank you very much for the opportunity given to the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants to review the draft report of Asia Pacific Migration Report 2024 that will inform the upcoming Regional Review in 2025.
The draft report’s Chapter 5 overviews most of the related migration issues in the region. There, we can see some advancements in terms of policies and initiatives made by related UN Bodies, government and civil society. Our interventions on this chapter are based on our work as well as from our partner organisations, mainly migrant workers, marriage migrants, immigrants and returned migrants and their families, and fellow migrant-serving institutions, faith-based organisations, and advocacy groups for migrants’ rights.
I. Migrants as reliable sources of information
For Objective 1: Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies
While the obligation to provide accurate and disaggregated data for evidence-based policies lies with the government, grassroots migrants organisations across Asia Pacific have also conducted campaigns, advocacies and many initiatives based on information they gathered from their respective communities.
Even before the COVID, in many migrant-host countries, migrants organisations, in cooperation with migrant-serving institutions, trade unions, women’s groups, among others, have provided strong, reliable information on the situations of migrants on the ground – from various forms of human and labor rights violations, gender-based violence, impacts of policies presented either by host or home governments, and their aspirations and demands for better working and living conditions, attention to their children and families back home, and hopefully more and better employment opportunities back home.
These are evidenced by researches co-produced by academics and migrant groups, migrant worker situationers in migrant-host countries, and advocacy reports written by migrants themselves. In the lead up to the International Migration Review Forum in 2022, for example, migrant and advocacy groups from Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan and Bangladesh wrote in their own words the Migrant Spotlight Reports, which reflected their current conditions during COVID, related these with GCM objectives, and put forward recommendations.
Evidence-based policy must include evidence put forward by grassroots migrants themselves. Evidence should not be quantitative data or statistics alone but stories and situations articulated by migrants themselves. So that the policies produced are the policies needed by migrants to overcome the problems of abuse and reduce their vulnerability.
II. Ensuring information that is accurate, accessible and migrant-friendly
For Objective 3 - Provide accurate and timely information at all stages of migration
Given the vulnerability of migrants, information on migrant’s rights as migrant workers, as national citizens working abroad and how to defend their rights or how to access justice need to be emphasized. With the lack or absence of accurate information on labor migration, for example, we have witnessed a high incidence and emergence of new forms of trafficking (e.g., cyber scams, education trafficking). We have received reports of contract substitution, in which migrant workers receive in their host country employment contracts that are different from those that they signed back in their home countries. The new contracts contain provisions such as new job designation and descriptions and lower salaries.
That is why delivery of information about migration should not be limited to the pre-departure orientation, but can be accessed by everyone, by the society, the potential migrants, migrants and their families with various means of information dissemination. Information that makes the cost of migration transparent based on rules and regulations is also important to avoid migrants from illegal levies and debt bondage.
Migrant organisations have utilized online platforms to unpack and discuss government policies with their respective communities (in South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Hong Kong) and even released statements and conducted picket protests and other actions to highlight their critique of policies and practices that visibly disadvantage migrants.
We encourage the replication of initiatives to make information accurate and migrant-friendly. By migrant-friendly we mean information written in the migrants’ native language, actively shared by governments and easily accessible whether in print or online format, easily understandable, and open to feedback from the migrants themselves.
III. Making migrant vulnerability history
For Objective 7 - Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration
Migrant vulnerability can also come from policies and practices. The requirement to stay with employers for domestic workers and caretakers has made migrant domestic workers on call for 24 hours, unregulated number of working hours, and vulnerability to abuse. Some are made to sleep in toilets, with their wards or rooms with no locks, violating their right to privacy and exposition to possible physical and sexual harm.
The trend of seasonal migrant workers in some countries puts migrant workers in a dangerous situation, as what they gain during the period of their work, only enough to cover the expensive cost of migration. This policy has led to more undocumented migrant workers, which are vulnerable to human rights abuse and violation, as they need to keep working to be able to send remittances to their loved ones.
We also witness a trend in informalisation of migrant labor, further restrictions in accessing visas, border-tightening, and criminalisation of migrants. As crackdowns are ongoing, we see more and more people from home countries going out to find work overseas.
We encourage more protection mechanisms from both host and home countries, especially through their embassies and consulates, that can be accessed by migrants in distress. Access to justice is also important. Most importantly, the political rights of migrants, especially temporary migrant workers - to organise themselves and form or join associations, freely speak up, and hold public assemblies - be acknowledged, respected and promoted. Through campaigns and advocacies of migrants and their advocates, wages of migrant domestic workers were increased, many undocumented migrants were given amnesty, racism and discrimination was combatted, and certain anti-migrant policies were revoked.
IV. Re-imagining perceptions on migration
For Objective 17 - Eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration
A majority of migrant workers are in 3D jobs – jobs that are dirty, difficult, and dangerous. With many labeled as ‘unskilled’, they are also considered as disposable, at risk of being harshly replaced anytime.This situation is extended with the way many migrant workers are paid less while doing unjust and sometimes inhumane amounts of work. At a policy level, this kind of discrimination is evident when governments do not include migrant workers in their labor laws.
Many times, migrant workers are also among the first groups of people who are victimized by racism, xenophobia and hate crimes. During the pandemic, domestic workers in Hong Kong were reduced to being “virus carriers” since they were the ones asked by employers to do all the errands. Other times, migrant workers are also branded as “job stealers” as they are forced to compete with locals despite the reality that it is the lack of opportunities at home which pushes them to go overseas.
It must be noted however that positive conceptions about migration can also contribute to shaping twisted narratives. Toxic positive perceptions such as framing migrant workers as “heroes” and “lifesavers” that boost economies allow governments to further take advantage of the work that migrants do. This is evident when developing countries actively develop labor export policies as solutions to economic and fiscal problems. This is also true whenever their resilience is being honored without looking at the broader picture of unjust labor conditions and socioeconomic insecurity that push them to cope in certain ways.
V. Making migrants’ participation meaningful and effective
For Objective 23 - Strengthen international cooperation and global partnerships for safe, orderly and regular Migration
All of us value partnership and cooperation. The multi stakeholder consultations initiated by the UN ESCAP in the lead up to the First Regional Review on the GCM in 2021 are not without flaws but are a good start to encourage and build partnerships with CSOs and migrant organisations. We encourage that this be continued, ensuring that the space remains continuously open and inclusive, allowing new interested groups especially migrant organisations to join and even actively providing support to capacitate their full and effective engagement in the GCM process.
Safe spaces need to be created as well from the international level down to the national and local levels where migrants can participate actively in discussing with governments on issues affecting migrants and their families. Currently, political rights and freedoms of migrants are either under threat or made illegal. These need to change.
The APMM advocates for meaningful participation of migrants in the GCM process and all advocacy spaces as well. Grassroots migrants are the primary stakeholders in the migration discourse and like many of us here, are experts too. They are the first to experience the challenges of labor migration, experience the impacts of agreements and policies, and communicate their demands.
Let us make the Global Compact work for migrants and with migrants. Thank you.
