Thirty-five years ago today, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (MWC) , recognizing migration’s aspiration for better futures, more dignified lives, and basic human rights, such as safety, shelter, and mobility. On this International Migrants Day, the Women in Migration Network (WIMN) affirms the necessity and urgency of active solidarity with migrant women, girls, and all migrants globally who continue to build economies, care for communities, and seek safety despite facing systemic barriers and violence.
Today, migration remains a powerful global force that is too often defined by discrimination, exclusion, and risk. The global landscape is marred by visa discrimination that overwhelmingly targets citizens of the Global South and workers in essential low-wage, manual, and caregiving sectors. This reality restricts access to safe and regular journeys, pushing migrants into precarious situations.
To remove these barriers, states must:
- Stop visa discrimination and expand rights-based regular pathways to migration, permanent residency, and citizenship.
- Prioritize family reunification, allow migrants to participate fully in civic life, and guarantee access to social protections.
- Prohibit recruitment fees and ensure visa portability, allowing migrants the freedom to change employers and claim justice without the threat of deportation.
The rising trend of digitalization also poses specific, compounded threats to migrant women’s safety and privacy. Surveillance technologies deployed at borders and the use of biased predictive analytics can severely reinforce discriminatory practices, making safe passage even more perilous. States must:
- Uphold privacy protections
- Establish clear data protection frameworks, and
- Ban any systems that infringe upon migrants’ fundamental rights or reinforce existing prejudices.
The climate crisis is a migration crisis. Action on climate mobility must be based on extensive consultation with impacted communities, especially women and other marginalized groups. We urge the development of regional frameworks and the provision of permanent residency visas for those displaced by climate factors, paired with commitments to reduce emissions and invest in community adaptation. Every migrant is a rights-bearing individual, and their human rights must be protected at all stages of transit and arrival.
Hostile anti-migrant narratives and the criminalization of solidarity must be addressed head-on. When governments invest in militarizing borders and outsourcing control, they fuel a cycle of violence and impunity while simultaneously penalizing humanitarian aid workers. States must:
- Immediately reverse the drive to criminalize migration, and instead, demilitarize borders, and
- Decriminalize the provision of assistance, recognizing that the protection of human rights in transit is paramount.
Secure status is the foundation of dignity. We call for the immediate adoption of simplified, flexible, and affordable regularization mechanisms that reflect the realities of migrant life. These pathways must guarantee family unity—ensuring children are registered regardless of their parents’ status—and grant access to employment, healthcare, education, and social services, with portability of benefits across borders. Furthermore, WIMN insists that all migrant workers, especially those in the vital care economy and informal sectors, must have their labor rights protected. Governments must recognize migrant domestic workers and other informal workers as workers, and fully implement key International Labour Organization (ILO) Conventions and the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families (CMW). Freedom of association must be guaranteed without discrimination by sector or migration status, and retaliation against unionized migrant workers must end.
Today, we sound an urgent call to the United Nations and all Member States: it is time to move beyond rhetoric and enact rights-based, gender-transformative policies that uphold the dignity of every migrant.
On this International Migrants Day, we reaffirm: Secure Status, Decent Work, and Dignity are not privileges; they are the inherent rights of every migrant.