New World Order For Migrants Needed: TU leader

by MARIA ALETA O. NIEVA
abs-cbnNEWS.com
10/28/2008 12:47 AM

Some 20 million workers around the world are expected to lose their jobs due to the current global financial crisis.

"We've got a very great fear for the tens of millions of workers who will lose their jobs. We believe that we will see the impoverishment of workers who will live on less than $2 a day rise by about 40 million," said Sharan Burrow, president of the International Trade Union Confederation.

Burrow is also conference chairperson of the 2nd Global Forum on Migration and Development's (GFMD) Civil Society Days being held in Manila from October 27 to 28.

Burrow said the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that the present financial crisis is likely to lead to the loss of some 20 million jobs worldwide.

According to Burrow, the ILO said that the number or working poor living on less than a dollar a day could rise by some 40 million, and those at US$2 a day, by more than 100 million.

Asian Crisis Lessons

Burrow said the first who will lose their jobs will be migrant workers. This was the experience during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

"This is true as sectors such a construction is being hard-hit, a sector where migrant workers are numerous. During the Asian crisis in 1997, the first reaction of governments was to announce the expulsion of migrant workers to free up jobs for nationals. Last week, in the wake of the global financial crisis, a number of governments' announced a possible tightening of their immigration intake," she said.

"We urge governments to think carefully about whether that's the right economic decision, because it can, of course, constrain economies where those migrants currently live and work, and we know that for developing countries, the financial crisis will be even deeper and felt more strongly," she added.

There is a possibility that migrant workers will be forced to work illegally in other countries.

"There is no question that people take up other jobs in other countries for a number of reasons. In a global financial crisis, if jobs are threatened, if regular channels of migration are constrained, then clearly, that will see an increase in people desperate to make an income working without documentation in many nations," she said.

Migrants First Out

There are about 40 million undocumented workers in the world with 10 million alone in the US.

"We're very fearful that unless governments are conscious of the fact that, migrant workers will be on the top of the list," Burrow said.

She explained that expanding regular migration, protecting rights and ensuring equal treatment and the policy coherence that world leaders must take on are some of the issues to be tackled during the two-day conference.

"Migration is a permanent feature of each of our nations and indeed of globalization. But all too often, we forget that it is about people, working people and their families. And hence, at its core, migration must be about human rights and dignity," she said.

Protective Global Architecture

The global financial crisis and climate change are critical threats to world order, which require new rules, new transparency and a new global architecture, she said.

"The challenge is no less for the world leaders to ensure that the potential for the mobility of the world's people, a mobility that is born of choice and not desperation, a mobility that provides opportunities and not exploitation, is framed by a new architecture of protection," she said.

Migrant workers are often seen as second-class citizens who are forced to work for their survival. Even documented workers still do not receive equal treatment, she said.

"We have to find a new set of rules, a global architecture for protection that guarantees equal treatment that expands regular migration channels that gives us coherence within nation and across nations to ensure that migration is based on choice," she said.

as of 10/28/2008 3:59 PM

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