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- Title
The International Organization for Migration and New Global Migration Governance.
- Authors
Chuang, Janie A.
- Abstract
This Article examines the role of the International Organization for Migration (“IOM”) in global migration governance and its implications for migrant workers’ rights and well-being. After 65 years of independent operations, the IOM joined the U.N. system in 2016 and quickly assumed the role of global lead migration agency—a status later affirmed by the 2018 U.N. Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. In this capacity, the IOM can influence whether and how states address the gaps in international migration law and policy that foster the continued exploitation and abuse of migrant workers worldwide. Critics worry, however, that the IOM’s new role as “U.N. Migration” could enable a “blue-washing” of its activities—projecting the appearance of humanitarianism while operating to migrants’ detriment. After all, before joining the U.N. system, the IOM was widely known as a “bureaucratic entrepreneur” that served the foreign policy interests of the Global North—and had a checkered human rights record to show for it. Whether the IOM’s past presages a future marked by a lackluster commitment to migrants’ rights largely remains to be seen. This Article offers some initial insights through close examination of the IOM’s efforts to promote ethical recruitment of migrant workers. The IOM’s work in this area unfortunately aligns with a trend in transnational labor governance away from binding labor regulations and towards incrementalist, soft law governance. It both legitimates the privatization of migration governance and diminishes state accountability for failing to prevent and address migrant worker abuse. In so doing, the IOM falls short on its promises to transform the recruitment industry and to advance migrant workers’ rights and well-being.
- Subjects
INTERNATIONAL Organization for Migration; IMMIGRATION law; MIGRANT labor; EMPLOYEE rights; EMPLOYEE well-being; INTERNATIONAL labor laws &; legislation; SOFT law
- Publication
Harvard International Law Journal, 2022, Vol 63, Issue 2, p401
- ISSN
0017-8063
- Publication type
Article