‘Make migration a choice not a necessity’: Challenging the instrumentalisation of migration as a tool for development

Abstract

International migration in its link to development has been subject to policy and academic analysis for decades. The current phase however distinguishes itself from previous phases in that it comes at a particular historical moment in time, at the tail end of economic globalisation that has resulted in an onslaught on labour rights and the weakening of labour movements worldwide. The lack of attention paid to ‘labour governance’ in global migration governance fora and policy descriptions has resulted in a utilitarian approach to the governance of worker mobility. The nascent global migrant rights movement has been mobilised to resist the instrumentalisation of migration as a tool for development premised on temporary migration schemes that curtail crucial rights for migrants. Their key demands pertain to greater freedom of mobility in a context of decent work opportunities ‘here’ and ‘there’.