The Economics and Politics of Migrant Rights

Aims and Objectives

This project explores why, when and how high-income countries restrict the rights of migrant workers (“migrant rights”), and discusses the implications for policy debates about the protection of migrant workers in the global labour market. It engages with theoretical debates about the tension between human rights and citizenship rights, the determinants and comparative analysis of labour immigration policy, and the ethics of immigration control and restrictions on migrant rights. The project makes a novel contribution to the empirical literature by constructing indices to measure the legal rights of migrants and policy openness to labour immigration in fifty high- and middle-income countries. Based on this theoretical and empirical analysis, the project aims to contribute to normative and policy debates about the rights that migrant workers should have when working abroad.

Background

There is a large gap between the rights of migrant workers stipulated in international human rights law and the rights that migrants working in high-income countries experience in practice. In response to this gap, human rights approaches to migration have emphasised the intrinsic value of migrant rights and the importance of respecting human rights regardless of citizenship. The starting point of this project is that, in addition to their intrinsic value, the rights of migrant workers also play an important instrumental role in shaping the outcomes of international labour migration for receiving countries, migrants and their countries of origin.

Migrant rights are in practice a core component of nation states’ labour immigration policies. The design of labour immigration policy requires nation states to make three fundamental decisions: (i) how to regulate the number of migrants to be admitted (e.g. through quotas or points-based systems); (ii) how to select migrants (e.g. by skill and/or nationality); and (iii) what rights to grant migrants after admission (e.g. free choice of employment, access to welfare benefits, temporary or permanent residence, access to citizenship etc.). Consequently, migrant rights cannot be studied in isolation of admission policy, in terms of both positive and normative analysis. To understand why, when and how countries restrict migrant workers’ rights, and to discuss what rights migrant workers should have, we need to consider the potential inter-relationships between migrant rights on the one hand, and national policies for admitting migrant workers on the other hand.

To study these interrelationships in practice, this project constructs and analyses two separate indices that measure: (i) the “openness” of fifty high- and middle-income countries to admitting migrant workers; and (ii) the legal rights (civil, political, economic, social and residency rights) granted to migrant workers after admission. The analysis distinguishes between policies toward low-, medium-, and high-skilled migrant workers. The indices facilitate analysis of: the variation in migrant rights and policy openness to labour immigration across countries and different types of migrant workers; the relationship between migrant rights, skills and openness to admitting migrant workers (including the “numbers vs. rights” hypothesis); and the determinants and impacts of migrant rights on receiving countries, migrants and their countries of origin. 

Methods

The project takes an inter-disciplinary and cross-country approach to the analysis of migrant rights and immigration policy. It draws from the relevant theoretical and empirical research on migration and migration policies in economics, politics, law and sociology. It analyses migration debates, impacts and policies in a wide range of immigration countries in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia. The measurement of migrant rights involves the construction of an index of the legal rights of migrant workers and openness to labour immigration in fifty high- and middle-income countries. There is currently no readily-available measure of immigration policy for comparative research across countries, so the development of the indices in this project will make a novel methodological contribution to the literature. 

Outputs

  • Ruhs, M. and P. Martin, 2008, "Numbers vs Rights: Trade-offs and Guest Worker Programs", International Migration Review 42 (1): 249-265   
  • Ruhs, M. (May 2010) "Migrant rights, immigration policy and human development", Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 11(2): 259-280  
  • Ruhs, M. (May 2010) "Numbers vs rights in low-skilled labour immigration policy? A comment on Cummins and Rodriguez 2010", Journal of Human Development and Capabilities 11(2): 305-310  
  • Ruhs, M. (July 2011) "Openness, Skills and Rights: An empirical analysis of labour immigration programmes in 46 high- and middle-income countries", COMPAS Working Paper WP-11-88
  • Ruhs, M. (expected in 2012), The economics and politics of migrant rights: A global analysis (working title), Book manuscript under contract with Princeton University Press

Presentations

  • Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, June 2009
  • United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, Geneva, October 2009
  • School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, February 2010
  • European University Institute (EUI), Florence, April 2010
  • London School of Economics (LSE), May 2010
  • Trinity College Dublin (TCD), June 2010
  • Sussex University, February 2011
  • University of Liege, March 2011
  • ECPR, University of Iceland, Aug 2011
  • IOM Inter-Agency Seminar, Geneva, Oct 2011
  • University of Turin, Oct 2011

Research Assistants (all DPhil students at Oxford University):

Ana Aliverti, Agnieszka Kubal, and Pablo Márquez (Law); Sophia Lee (Social Policy); Lucie Cerna (Politics); Manmit Bhambra (Sociology)