5. Immigration

Background

International migration has increased over the last number of decades, accelerated by the process of globalization. There are currently about 125 million immigrants (people who have moved from one country to another) in the world, 80 million of whom are considered "recent" immigrants. The growing population of immigrant men, women and children has serious impacts for the countries they leave, as well as for the countries which receive them. However, despite the demands of numerous nongovernmental organizations, officials have refused to address this issue in the negotiation of trade and investment liberalization agreements. Such agreements deal only with the free movement of capital, goods, and their agents, but exclude the mobility of workers.

The forces driving people to migrate are many. After political violence, the leading reason is the problem of unemployment. Immigration affects not only those who migrate. It has major consequences for the economic and social relationships between countries involved. It is therefore necessary to agree on international rules to address not only the human and labour rights of migrants, but also to regulate the flow of labour.

The impacts of immigration are complex. Developing nations have become exporters of workers who are often vulnerable to exploitation. Corporations have taken full advantage of this situation, contributing to the lowering of wages for some workers in host countries. At the same time, the money remitted by the immigrant workers to family members in their homeland plays a major role in reducing problems in the current account balance in developing economies and cushioning social problems and extreme poverty.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that approximately 30 million immigrant workers send a total of nearly US$67 billion a year back to their countries. Many studies show that such remittances are the second leading source of foreign exchange in the world, after petroleum. In fact, for some countries in the Americas (such as El Salvador), remittances are the main source of foreign currency. In Mexico, despite an export-oriented economy and a well-developed maquiladora sector, remittances from workers outside the country remain the fourth-largest source of foreign currency. These remittances account for many governments' lack of interest in regulating the mobility of labour.

The United States, the largest host country for immigrant labour, has hardened and to a great extent militarized its immigration policy. It has also pressured other countries such as Mexico to create a retaining wall against the flow of people from Central America and the Caribbean. However, the rest of the continent is not impervious to the serious border problems linked to the flow of migrant labour.

In the future, trade and investment liberalization agreements must address both the human rights concerns related to immigration (in the broad sense discussed in the chapter in on human rights) and regulations on cross-border labour mobility.

Guiding Principles

• All governments should sign and/or ratify the "International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families" (1990), and a similar instrument should be created for the Americas. This convention, like all those legal instruments referred to in the chapter on human rights, must be part of the international legal framework for all trade and financial negotiations.

• The extra-territorial application of any immigration policy not developed democratically among affected nations should be banned. This would mean the banning of certain current practices such as the demand by some countries that individuals entering their territory first obtain a visa for entry into the United States. It would also ban pre-inspection facilities such as those that the U.S. is attempting to institute in certain airports and at borders (and which already exist in Canada).

• Governments should prohibit the use of violence or excessive force in the implementation of national immigration laws and policies, and establish bi-national commissions, with the participation of non-governmental organizations in the monitoring of national immigration laws, to ensure strict adherence to human rights.

• Strengthen the mechanisms for diplomatic protection of migrants.

• Enact humane national immigration laws, with participation of migrants' and other non-governmental organizations and experts in the development, implementation and evaluation phases.

• Immigrant workers should have the same rights and working conditions as the workers in their host country, regardless of their immigration status. Employers taking undue advantage of the workers' immigration status by imposing working conditions and wages below legal requirements should be severely penalized.

• Trade and investment agreements should include international support for specific development programs designed to improve employment opportunities in areas that are major net exporters of labour.

• There is tremendous diversity in the immigration-related problems and situations in different countries of the hemisphere. For example, in some countries an open-door policy is both practical and desirable, while in others it is not. Hence, the framework for negotiations within the Americas should provide for bi-national or sub-regional agreements on immigration in countries or areas with significant flows of migrants. Such covenants should equalize labour rights and social security systems upwards, while making the scope of coverage international.