By Carol Barton, Paola Cyment, Catherine Tactaquin, Women in Migration Network
As the global health pandemic has laid bare intense inequities and multiple, interlocking crises throughout the world, implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM) is urgently needed.
The rise of the COVID-19 crisis has exposed numerous systemic problems — including informal economies, weak health care systems, an absence of social safety nets, structural racism, gender discrimination, inhumane migration regimes, gaping inequalities between nations, and more. For migrant women, the past year’s crisis has exacerbated the trauma, instability and uncertainty in their lives and those of their families.
As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we are especially aware of the ways these crises impact women in migration. Bold action by states is needed to walk roll back exclusionary, discriminatory and harmful policies, embracing the Compact’s focus on the well-being of all migrants. More than ever, we need States to commit to mainstream a gender perspective in their migration policies, promote gender equality and the empowerment of all migrant women and girls, and recognize their independence, agency and leadership, as stated in the general principles of the GCM.
Global Realities
Migrant women are concentrated in both “essential workers” and “disposable workers” groups impacted by the pandemic. Jobs in health care, cleaning, elder care, farm labor, transit, shipping warehouses and more may have continued, but often without decent wages, paid sick or medical leave, access to health care or adequate protective gear. As restaurants, markets and retail stores shut down, low wage service workers, many of them migrant women of color, have found themselves without jobs and with no safety net. Similarly, many migrant women workers on temporary labor contracts, particularly for domestic work, were suddenly without jobs, scrambling to return to home countries even as borders were closed. Some were evicted from employers’ homes and left without support. Wage theft has been rampant.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit especially hard on groups most marginalized by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and migration status. The lack of health care, environmental racism, overcrowded housing and work in unhealthy and often dangerous jobs has long put communities of color and migrant communities at higher risk – and higher COVID-19 death rates in some nations- give testimony to the effect of these inequities.
On a global level, the gaping North/South divide and unequal global financial rules have left poorer nations scrambling to meet needs with limited external support. This has meant little fiscal space for poor nations to offer stimulus packages and provide much-needed assistance – and too often, such assistance is out of reach for migrants, especially the undocumented.
The production, distribution and access to COVID-19 vaccines have underscored these inequalities within and between nations. As of mid-February, there were 4.2 billion doses of vaccine for 16% of the world population and only 2.5 billion doses for 84% of the world population. We echo the United Nations Network on Migration call for states to “guarantee rapid, fair, and equitable access to vaccines for all and the inclusion of migrants, regardless of their status in their national COVID-19 vaccination programmes and other public health interventions”.
Regional Realities
The Women in Migration Network embarked on a global mapping of civil society organizations working on gender & migration in 2020 just as the pandemic was unfolding. We asked about the priorities of organizations as well as how migrant women were being impacted by the pandemic. The report, launched this month, highlights regional realities, offering important civil society input for Compact Regional Reviews, including needed national and regional policy responses.
- In Latin America, Black and Indigenous women, and women from Africa who are in transit have faced greater discrimination and exclusion and have fewer organizations. Extractive industries are pushing Indigenous peoples off of their land and are drivers of migration. Gender-based violence and sexual assaults are ubiquitous for women in transit and at borders.
- A new European policy is creating greater restrictions. Many migrant women remain dependent on an employer or spouse for their status, while asylees may end up in irregular status and unable to access basic services.
- In Africa, as elsewhere, migrant women have experienced increased gender-based violence and xenophobia during the pandemic. Securitization of borders and criminalization of migrants is widespread and also on the increase. COVID-19 has caused a loss of livelihoods for many migrants, contributing to greater poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Those in transit and detained in the Maghreb area have been deported to countries of origin without adequate pandemic measures in place.
- In the MENA region, domestic workers have been excluded from some reforms in the Kafala system, which ties workers to employers. Many domestic and hospitality workers have lost their jobs without any unemployment or social benefits. There is limited space for freedom of association and collective bargaining.
- In Asia some countries have issued travel bans on women’s migration to prevent exploitation — only to increase risk with restrictions on women’s freedom of movement. Widespread temporary labor schemes, without standard norms regarding wages and working conditions, make migrant women vulnerable to abuse. Debt bondage to recruiting agencies has continued as a major issue for migrant women, who may not report employer abuses for fear of job loss.
There is a stark gap between the values of the Compact and inward-looking responses during the pandemic. We cannot be about “building back” to a “normal” of inequities and injustice. We must create permanent solutions that provide support and services to all, regardless of status, and that will close the gaps in protections that continue to exclude millions of migrants, and undocumented migrants, in particular. This requires rights-based and gender-responsive approaches that include durable social protections in countries of origin, transit and destination; and robust labor protection frameworks. Gender sensitive, rights-based immigration systems; emergency responses that contribute to regenerative, sustainable economies, clear checks on corporate power; and stronger democratic institutions are critically needed. As we begin to also turn our attention to addressing the world’s climate crisis, these commitments are also critical.
States supporting the GCM have affirmed that
“our success rests on the mutual trust, determination and solidarity of States to fulfil the objectives and commitments contained in this Global Compact.”
Such determination and solidarity is needed now! Migrant women and their allies are ready partners to make this happen.