"every tuesday" starts today with a text about the UN-convention for the protection of the rights of migrant-workers. the article is written by Corinna Genschel, Thomas Hohlfeld and Dirk Vogelskamp from the comitee for basic human rights and democracy (Grundrechtekomitee) in Germany and it refers in its later parts to the european and german context. But the text touches mainly general estimations and questions concerning the conditions of migrant workers all over the globe and of course, this UN(!)convention could be seen as a catalysator for discussions about migrant workers rights in all continents.
Corinna Genschel / Thomas Hohlfeld /Dirk Vogelskamp
Rights for a global subproletariat?
The UN-Convention for the protection of the rights of migrant workers
The uprooting of people increases daily on a global scale. This is partially the consequence of what is generally called "neoliberal globalization". "Neoliberal globalization" means the violent pervasion of all human relations and living conditions without exception, it means ordering every bit of them according to the requirements of capital realization (or utilization). That is why countless people are forced to set off from the regions of economic depression and political crisis - in other words the thinned out zones of globalization - to other areas. In immidiate search of a secure existence, of work, protection, income and human living perspectives these global and transnational migration movements do not and cannot even stop at those borders armed to prevent their crossing.
Globally life chances - the possibilities to live, keep and organize one's life in a rather self-determined manner - are distributed in an extreme unequal manner. The "neoliberal strategy" of privatization, deregulation and adaptation of all human relations to the dictates of the world market has left disastrous effects. The world is cut up in spaces of extreme poverty, violence and deprivation of rights on the one hand, of unexpected wealth on the other hand. The fragmentation of the world into "zones of life and zones of death" (Etienne Balibar) generates a huge group of those who seem to be the "world's undesireds"(Johannes Agnoli). With all right we can speak of a social system of global apartheid, in which the "world's undesireds" are stopped from entering the islands of abundance with all the violence of the border and the control of migration.
The global divide in regards to the conditions of production, of life and work is the source of continual accumulation of captital. It is the source for the profit for transnational corporations as well as structurally for the populations of the wealthy nations of the Global North. The zone's borders are not clear cut. We can find them also throughout the islands of wealth: at the fences of detention camps inside international airports; at the social exclusions and at spacial lock-ups for migrants in mass quarters, "Centres of Departure" (deportation camps) and prisons; at the social-legal exclusions through national special law. However, migrant movements continuously avoid and displace these borders, borders which are profitable for and in this global system of inequality. Therefore, the borders have to be maintained by any means. Thousands of refugees and emigrants loose their lives by trying to get from one zone to the other.
The borders are permeable though. According to national and economic interests, the "North" recruits high-qualified migrants transnationally, seasonal workers receive temporary work permits in low-wage sectors, and the precarious work of undocumented migrants has become a calculated element for profitable business. As a result a set of differential relations of dependency, exploitation and legal protection is in place, a set which evidently also touches the social and wage structure in the "North". According to specific interests, migrant workers can be used as a competing factor in the scarce asset "work", they can be used to lower social standards or for ideologically staged campaigns against so called illicit work. Thus, the gap between those of the national populations who participate in and profit from the unequal distribution of wealth on the one hand, and the economically deprived and socially excluded population even in the Global North on the other hand increases in a fast and violent manner.
Yet, some of those who are fundamentally unwanted manage to get into the zones of wealth. There they are absorbed by the informal and unregulated labour markets. They work as house keepers and sex workers, as day laborers on construction sites, farms and plantations, in sweat shops and restaurants. Migrant workers make up the profitable exploitable lining of a globalized economy, which continuously lowers the prize of the global good labor power. This applies specifically for the work intensive sectors, which cannot be outhoused abroad (construction, aggriculture, house-related services, catering and nursing trade). Thus, Phillippinian migrants slave away under inhuman condition in Hongkong, the same goes for maroccon farm workers in Spain, Latinamerican workers in all over Europe's affluent households, Romanian contract workers in German slaughter houses or Eastern European hearvest workers on farms and in vineyards. They are exposed to permanent discrimination against them, to exploitation and violence. Out of fear of deportation and expulsion they avoid necessary medical treatment and due to their irregular status the kids cannot go to school.
The rights of migrant workers
The basic human rights of migrants are violated and ignored in various ways, especially if they are considered as "undocumented", "illegal" or "undesired". "The International Convention for the Protection of the Rights of all Migrants and their Families" objects to this daily practice (short: UN-Convention). Convinced that it was necessary to determine human rights of migrants in a precise manner, to police their application and to create better possibilites for their realization, the UN-Convention was written. It took time and effort to develop and pass the UN-Convention. It goes back to a resolution of the general assembly in 1979 and was passed on December18 in 1990. In Germany and Europe the Convention is still rather unknown, even if it is effective since July 1st of 2003 and since 20 nations already signed it.
According to the UN-Convention the term "migrant worker" refers to a person, "who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national". For the first time the term "migrant worker" as well as the category of "family member" is defined by international law as well as their specific human rights are put into words. No matter whether one is a legal migrant worker, seasonal workers, transnational commuters or an irregular workers without a residency permit everyboy who does not have the citizenship of the country she or he is working in, is considered a migrant worker.
The political significance of the UN-Convention can be illustrated with some examples:
? Foreign workers are not merely regarded as objects of enterprises, rather they are equipped with unexchangeable and protective rights as well as with personal and family interests.
? The Convention takes into consideration that migrant workers and their families often do not have adequate protection, because they are not citizens of the countries they are working for and living in.
? The fundamental human rights apply according to the Convention to all migrant workers no matter whether they have legal residency or not. Regular migrant workers and their families dispose of further rights, here specifically the right to not being discriminated against in all relevant legal, political, economical and cultural questions.
? The UN-Convention aims to prevent the uninhibited exploitation of migrant workers and their families beyond legal normes and wants to fight against these forms by international law.
Basically the UN-Convention takes the migrant workers, who is discriminated against on a global scale and excluded through permanent social practice, as subjects of law serious. Human rights of this global subproletariat are undivisive (the right to freedom, to a family unit, to education, bodily integrity and medical treatment, to equal pay and access to constitutional legal practice), they apply to anybody independent of national and residence law, independent of according the politics of law and order and economic interests of the country of exile. If they are violated, legal action needs to be taken.
Refusing fundamental rights
Up to now not one nation of the "Global North" - neither a member state of the EU nor the Federal Republik of Germany - have signed the UN-Convention. It is predominantly the nations of origin of the migrant workers (e.g. Egypt, Marocco, the Philippins), who have signed the UN-Convention in order to protect their citizen from discrimination, violence and exploitation.
While the UN-Convention attempts to see to the specific problems of approximatley 150 millions of global migrant workers, the most economically and military powerful nations, in which most of these workers are exploited, refuse to notice their fundamental needs. It is a scandal and against the constitution that for example German laws - specifically the socalled foreigner law - contradict crucial UN-regulations and that the German government refuses to sign this UN-protection.
Yet, the essence of that which the Convention of 2003 standardizes in legal terms in relation to migrant workers, is already part of the General Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 and part of international treaties which regulate civil and political, economic and cultural rights - many of them signed by the Federal Rupublic of Germany. According to the German Constitution (Grundgesetz) these definitions of human rights apply "directly " in other words they apply also for migrant workers (see paragraph 1, 2 + 3 "Constitution Law"). The red-green government however, justifies its refusal to effectfully protect the human rights of migrant workers as it is aimed with the UN-Convention, by arguing that the Convention could function as an incentive for people to live and work in Germany without a permit. Yet, the UN-Convention does not touch the right of nation states to make decisions over the access to their territories - and it does so in an explicit, conscious manner! The Convention aims to stop human rights violations - beyond national borders. The attitude of the German government and of those of other EU nations encourages however practices of discrimination and relations of exploitation and violence, which many of the undocumented and precarious workers internationally have to endure.
An initiative against the empty use of human rights
For this reason the Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie decided to start a campaign for the ratification of the UN-Convention by the German government. This mass-petition will be handed over to Petition-Committee of the German parliament in December of 2004.
We know that the practical effects in case of a ratification should not be overrated. Many rights of the UN-Convention are subject to a narrow interpretation of the law due to "soft" phrasings and indetermined legal terms. A large group of people - refugees, asylum seekers and others - cannot refer to the UN-Convention. Furhermore, the Convention does not recommend to "legalize" those people who live and work without any residency-permits since years in this country. The Grundrechtekomitee believes that in this regard the UN-Convention is definitely not sufficient. However, the Federal Republik of Germany as well as the other European nations should at least come forward to ratify and put into practice the UN-Convention.
Since the German government is at this point not willing to do so the Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie has started initiative of a mass petition in order to generate a public and parliamentary debate in Germany on the UN-Convention and the permanent violations of human rights of undocumented and marginalized emigrants. Similar initiatives are underway in other European states, regions and continents. They have found the internet platform www.december18.net. With this initiative the Komitees für Grundrechte und Demokratie wants to complement other refuggee campaigns, especially those who aim for the protection of undocumented migrants.
The rights of migrant workers are indivisible human rights, we are obliged to help realize on a global scale. We are obliged to do so for the sake of all our human rights, since forcefully maintaining the global apartheidsystem undermines the conditions of a social, human-rights oriented democracy internationally.
The four-pages petition (in German) can be ordered at: Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie, Aquinostr. 7-11, 50670 Köln, Germany or at: info@grundrechtekomitee.de
Corinna Genschel, Thomas Hohlfeld, Dirk Vogelskamp work in the Komitee für Grundrechte und Demokratie
