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1. Towards an EU Toolbox for Migrant Workers

Publication Date:
12-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
As part of its proposal for an EU Migration and Asylum Pact, the European Commission has pledged to present proposals on legal migration in 2021 to better match labour demand and supply, enable better, faster access to visas and work permits, and increase the intra-EU mobility of foreign workers. This report analyses the actions taken by three EU member states: Germany, Italy, and Spain. These countries have created or expanded labour migration pathways, regularised part of the undocumented population, and increased protections for some categories of migrants. The report examines how effective these different approaches have been and if there are lessons to be learned at the EU level.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Work Culture, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:
Germany, Spain, and Italy

2. Working Together to Address Health Workforce Mobility in Europe

Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The free movement of people is a cornerstone of an open and integrated Europe. Yet the labor migration of Europeans from lower-income countries in southern and eastern Europe to higher-income countries in northern and western Europe has had significant impact on the workforce—including the loss of skilled health professionals in their most productive years. Indeed, since 1989, hundreds of thousands of European health professionals have left their countries of origin for more promising opportunities in the west and north. Denied opportunities for decent work at home, and recruited by countries facing their own labor shortages, their mobility is a byproduct of a failure throughout Europe to develop health workforces in an evidence-based and strategic way. Ultimately, this failure threatens the human right to health. This brief offers policymakers six key insights, drawn from a literature review and interviews with European experts, on the migration and mobility of health professionals. These insights are offered within a framework that prioritizes human rights, gender equality, and worker solidarity.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Health Care Policy, European Union, Economic Mobility, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:
Europe

3. Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal

Publication Date:
06-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Much attention has been directed to the exploitation of low-wage migrant workers in the Middle East, where harms are commonplace and severe, and access to justice is limited. But the story of labor migration begins and ends at home. Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Nepal is the first comprehensive analysis of how laws and institutions in Nepal succeed or fail in protecting migrant workers from harms suffered during recruitment or while working in the Middle East. The study finds that despite Nepal’s efforts to protect migrant workers, it often falls short in holding private recruitment companies and individual agents accountable. The report presents detailed short- and long-term recommendations for government and civil society advocates that address the failures of Nepal’s migrant worker policies by treating workers as holders of defined, enforceable rights.
Topic:
Civil Society, Human Rights, Migration, Labor Issues, Justice, Migrant Workers, and Political Rights
Political Geography:
Asia and Nepal

4. Ethnic Origin and Disability Data Collection in Europe: Measuring Inequality—Combating Discrimination

Publication Date:
11-2014
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
The report Ethnic Origin and Disability Data Collection in Europe: Measuring Inequality—Combating Discrimination is published within the framework of the Equality Data Initiative, a project launched by the Open Society Foundations in collaboration with the Migration Policy Group and the European Network Against Racism to increase awareness within the European Union for the need to collect reliable data for groups at risk of discrimination. The report challenges the commonly held view in Europe that the collection of disability and ethnic data is categorically prohibited. It voices the necessity to involve the affected communities in the process of defining best practices and to respect binding core principles of data collection such as self-identification of the data subject and consent-based, voluntary, and anonymized data collection. The focus of the research is on Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Romania, and Sweden in the field of public education and on France in the field of public employment. Most of these EU member states collect data about their citizens in one or other way. However—as the report suggests—their methods lead to results that are either inaccurate or unreliable. The report makes recommendations for action at both the national and EU levels in order to achieve effective change in the field of equality data and to use data to promote equal treatment. Advocacy and strategic litigation are needed to steer national debates away from taboos, and question unlawful, harmful, or simply unsuitable data collection practices, and to call for the inclusion of disability and ethnic minority communities in the process. The European Commission and other EU institutions can provide guidance in this process by issuing recommendations and guidelines on equality data collection.
Topic:
Migration, Science and Technology, European Union, Citizenship, Discrimination, Disability, Data, Digital Policy, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:
Europe

5. Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia

Publication Date:
10-2013
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
Each year, around half a million Indonesians travel abroad to work, half of those to the Middle East. Many are women who suffer abuse and exploitation when they work abroad but have virtually no access to recourse within their host country’s legal system. The vulnerability of migrant workers abroad makes it crucial for them to be able to seek redress in their own countries. Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia is the first comprehensive study of migrant workers’ access to justice in their country of origin. A collaborative effort by the Open Society International Migration Initiative, the Tifa Foundation, and the Migrant Worker Access to Justice Project, the report analyzes how migrant workers may access justice in Indonesia, and identifies the systemic barriers that prevent them from receiving redress for harms they suffer before, during, and after their work abroad. The report also provides recommendations for improving access to justice and private sector accountability in 11 key areas, addressed to government, parliament, civil society, donors, and others. Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice at Home: Indonesia is an important contribution to advancing the rights of migrant workers and will serve as a valuable guide for civil society groups in Indonesia and elsewhere to better understand, use, and test existing justice mechanisms to enforce migrant workers’ rights.
Topic:
Migration, Labor Issues, Employment, Economic Policy, Justice, Migrant Workers, and Legal Sector
Political Geography:
Indonesia and Middle East

6. Position Paper: Bringing migrant detention into line with human rights standards

Author:
Costanza Hermanin
Publication Date:
06-2013
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
On the occasion of the 2013 review of the implementation of the Return Directive, this position paper encourages the European Commission to consider whether to adopt updated guidelines. It urges member states to consider adopting legislation to bring procedural safeguards and minimum conditions in line with human rights standards whenever detention is used during the return process.
Topic:
Human Rights, Migration, Law, European Union, Legislation, Migrant Workers, and Political Rights
Political Geography:
Europe

7. Education for Migrant, Minority and Marginalised Children in Europe

Publication Date:
01-2008
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Open Society Foundations
Abstract:
In 2007, the Open Society Institute Education Support Program launched the Education for Migrants, Minorities and Marginalized children in Europe (EMMME) project to investigate the impact of education on social inclusion and issues of injustice in education for migrant children in Europe. EMMME research and mapping suggests considerable and growing disparities in access to quality education and increasing segregation in European schools. During the course of the EMMME project, two separate but interlinked documents were produced: Education for Migrant, Minority and Marginalized Children in Europe and Making the Mark? An Overview of Current Challenges in the Education for Migrant, Minority, and Marginalized Children in Europe. Education for Migrant, Minority and Marginalized Children in Europe collates up-to-date evidence on the educational realities that confront migrants, minorities, and marginalized groups in the European Union. The report identifies policy responses, legislative frameworks and local initiatives that seek to improve the educational position of children from migrant and minority groups. The reviewed literature emanates primarily from four countries in which groups with a migrant background make up a significant proportion of the national and school-going populations: France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
Topic:
Education, Health, Minorities, Children, Marginalization, and Migrant Workers
Political Geography:
United Kingdom