Editorial
| Date | 01 April 2018 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12442 |
| Published date | 01 April 2018 |
Editorial
Among the correlates to the rights-based approach to managing migration that now holds sway in
the international community is growing attention to the vulnerabilities of migrants. The extent to
which this attention to vulnerabilities will displace the recognition of their strengths is unclear, but
the “Zero Drafts”of the United Nations’Global Compacts on migration and on refugees suggest
that there has been some displacement already. Rather than being encouraged to recognize and
reward migrants for their skills, their education, their entrepreneurship, their labour, and their resili-
ence, states are now primarily being asked to foreground migrants’needs and to provide supports,
especially through recognizing and respecting their human rights. Although these are not mutually
exclusive points of focus, and although the strengths that migrants bring may indeed need less sup-
portive attention from governments than their vulnerabilities, this elevated attention to vulnerabili-
ties marks a significant shift in emphasis in the global migration debate. How this will affect
national government policy and action is something that we will all want to observe. Will states
alter their positions on border control, on the treatment of migrant workers, on undocumented
migrants and their families? Will more avenues for regular migration be opened as a result?
Article 10 of the Zero Draft of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,
which was released shortly before this Editorial was written, calls upon governments to “reduce the
risks and vulnerabilities that migrants face at different stages of migration by respecting, protecting
and fulfilling their human rights and providing them with care and assistance.”Article 21, in a
more lengthy treatment of vulnerabilities, asks governments to “commit to provide specialized pro-
tection and assistance to migrants, who often face particular, multiple, and intersecting forms of
vulnerability, by ensuring that human rights are at the centre of our efforts.”That human rights are
at the core of the Zero Draft is to be expected and follows a lineage of approach going back to the
Global Commission on International Migration whose 2005 report stressed that, in the main, the
international community has in place many of the provisions required for managing migration in
the form of existing international law and agreements on human rights. What is required is national
action that adheres to these existing agreements.
The United Nations is asking for contributions to improving the situations of migrants and refu-
gees from not only governments but from other sectors of society including the academic sector.
What this journal can offer is empirical research on the many aspects of vulnerability that these
global compacts are covering. In this, our second issue of 2018, we focus on the vulnerabilities that
migrants face and they are many and varied as the two Zero Drafts amply show. Our hope here is
to support policy making with empirical evidence, evidence that will both assist governments to
develop supportive policy as well as to avoid policy that has as among its effects an increase in the
vulnerability that migrants and refugees experience.
Rocha-Jiminez et al look at human trafficking in Mexico, particularly at the risks encountered by
female adolescents in being coerced into the sex trade as they migrate for socio-economic reasons.
The authors offer ideas for policies that support safer migration for young people. Migrants have
long been vulnerable to wage disparities and much research has been carried out to document the
phenomenon and its trajectories. Wu et al look at the earnings gaps experienced by Chinese immi-
grants to the United States and Canada, finding that the gap is less in the U.S. despite its not hav-
ing the sort of robust integration programmes of Canada. How discrimination is experienced and
with what effect on migrants’well-being varies not only from one destination society to another
Dr. Howard Duncan, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
doi: 10.1111/imig.12442
©2018 The Authors
International Migration ©2018 IOM
International Migration Vol. 56 (2) 2018
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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