By Patrick Taran
Migration,
Globalization and Human Rights. These are three central challenges shaping,
or reshaping, the world at the dawn of the 21st century.
Today, over 130 million people live, temporarily or permanently, outside
their country of origin, according to United Nations figures. Hundreds
of millions more have been displaced within their countries of origin.
Migration has been a permanent and often positive feature of human history.
However, several profoundly disturbing trends indicate that the displacement
of people has become a dramatic sign of our troubled times:
- Increasingly
severe breakdowns of economic, political, social and environmental
situations make it more difficult for people to survive and remain in
their traditional communities and countries. Political and military
forces often use ethnicity and religion to divide, even destroy, pluralistic
societies, and displace people. By one recent count, there were 130
active armed conflicts around the world.
- Rising
debt and skyrocketing national budget deficits have produced fiscal
crises in many countries. International financial institutions loan
money to these governments, but only if they implement “structural adjustment
programs.” These programs often impose harsh conditions which undermine
social services, decent wages, and job opportunities—compelling people
to migrate.
- Development
of communications and transportation technology has facilitated
travel, particularly for people seeking safe haven from intolerable
conditions. It has also made many aware of the options and conditions
elsewhere.
- Most
migration is taking place within and among the countries of the
global South, those with the least resources to receive and assist large
numbers of newcomers.
- There
is a frightening rise in racist and xenophobic hostility against
refugees, migrants and foreigners in general. Migrants are becoming
stigmatized as a major threat to host societies and associated with
crime. Nowhere is this more apparent than in their now-widespread designation
as “illegals” (instead of undocumented or irregular migrants).
- Governments worldwide, following the lead of industrialized countries, are imposing restrictive immigration controls and draconian “deterrence measures” against the movement of people.
Refugees from the Global Economy
The effects of globalization are excluding more people from any meaningful participation in the market economy. That means excluded from the means to have a dignified life or respect for their economic, social and cultural rights. Migration today is less about seeking a better life; it is more about having life at all, simply seeking survival.
A major dichotomy remains between “refugees” and “immigrants.” Refugees are recognized as those fleeing political persecution and deserving of protection and assistance. However, in the eyes of many, immigrants remain some kind of fortune seekers, leaving home out of choice to come elsewhere “to improve their economic situation.”
There is a serious human rights contradiction in a dichotomy that polarizes concepts of refugees and migrants. Our common conceptual framework must better reflect the realities of human displacement in the age of globalization.
For example, the World Council of Churches adopted the following “redefinition”:
“People leave their communities for many reasons and are called different names — refugees, internally displaced persons, asylum seekers, economic migrants. As churches, we lift up all those who are compelled by severe political, economic and social conditions to leave their land and their culture — regardless of the label they are given by others. Uprooted People are those who flee because of persecution and war, those who are forcibly displaced because of environmental devastation, and those who are compelled to seek sustenance in a city or abroad because they cannot survive at home.”
This definition better conveys the tremendous physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual disruption that accompanies being displaced.
Hopeful Signs for the Future
Those who hold political and economic power now appear to recognize that the logic and practice of globalization are not meeting the basic human needs of many of the world’s people. This was evident in the massive response against the activities of the World Trade Organization in Seattle last year.
Progress on human rights will only be achieved by broad cooperation among different sectors and regions. Recognizing this, an alliance of major intergovernmental and international non-governmental organizations has launched the Global Campaign for entry into force of the 1990 International Convention on migrants rights.
The UN Commission on Human Rights has also made progress in naming a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights of Migrants for a period of three years. It is now up to us working for human rights to send her the data that can provide the basis for identifying, preventing and remedying violations of the human rights of migrants internationally.
In this intersection of globalization, migration and human rights, thinking globally and acting locally is no longer sufficient. We must also act globally, in analysis, strategy and day-to-day action.