Migrant Rights Database

• In Event: Migrant Rights: Practices at the Local, National, and Multilateral Levels

Abstract

Policy makers and activists are pursuing a global standard for migration governance and the protection of migrant rights. However, there remains a paucity of data about the baseline of international legal standards and the extent to which this baseline is reflected in the national legal frameworks of different destination states. The Migrant Rights Database applies a novel instrument to create an objective, cross-national accounting of the laws protecting migrant rights enshrined in national legal frameworks. The database permits aggregation, disaggregation, and an objective system of benchmarking—all contained in an efficient coding instrument that can be applied cross-nationally and over time. In this study, we apply the database’s 65 binary indicators to five principal destination states—Germany, Mexico, the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Turkey. The results validate the design of the questionnaire and reveal variation within and across the selected countries—the principal goals of the pilot study. The pilot database demonstrates its use beyond such comparative accounting. It is a means of revealing where derogation takes place. For example, although they are the pilot countries that most completely enshrine international protections in their national laws, South Africa and Mexico remain behind the international baseline in several dimensions. Further, the results suggest the potential of the data to reveal “low-hanging fruit” for negotiation of the Global Compacts—the areas in which there is a near international consensus on the protection of migrant rights. From the initial coding, promising areas of law include rights associated with nationality; freedom of thought, conscience, and religious belief; freedom of opinion and expression; access to the labor market; and equal protection.

Authors

• Justin Gest, George Mason University

• Tom K. Wong, University of California, San Diego