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ICMC Written Submission to the Day of General Discussion: Protecting the Rights of All Migrant Workers as a Tool to Enhance Development

Document number
1032
Date
2005
Title
ICMC Written Submission to the Day of General Discussion: Protecting the Rights of All Migrant Workers as a Tool to Enhance Development
Author/publisher
International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMW)
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Guidelines/Recommendations, Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports,
Keywords
International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants Workers and Members of Their Families, High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development; United Nations (UN); CMW Day of General Discussion, Committee of Migrant Workers
Summary
Paper notes that most debates take place within a negative and control-oriented atmosphere. Welcomes that the nexus between migration and development has gained interest from most major international bodies in the last decade and points out that migration most often has an overall positive economic impact on the receiving country, whereas it can have a mixed impact on development in the country of origin (e.g. brain drain of skilled labour might undermine development efforts). It points out that what is strikingly missing from the actual debate on the development/migration nexus is a rights-based approach. Paper outlines the situation of migrants in the country of origin, the country of employment, and concludes with the following recommendation: "Finally, we wish to emphasize that the current recommendation to allow one NGO representative only into the High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development at the General Assembly in 2006 does not do justice to the rich and multi-faceted collective expertise shared amongst hundreds of NGOs around the world. We urge the Committee on Migrant Workers to advocate for a large NGO representation, along the lines of traditional United Nations regional groupings, and take into consideration the work done by relevant international NGOs. In addition, the High Level Dialogue should make space for participation of representatives of migrant workers."
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