WIDE Annual Conference 2010

WIDE´S INTERNATIONAL Capacity Building and Annual Conference 2010

"Migration in the Context of Globalisation: Women´s Human Rights at Risk?" hosted by AUR (KARAT member) in Bucharest, Romania, 3, 4 and 5 June 2010

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Read the Draft Annual Conference Programme
Read the Draft Programme of Capacity Building Day
 Conference objectives and rationale

WIDE´s 2010 Annual Conference "Migration in the Context of Globalisation: Women´s Human Rights at Risk?" will be hosted by AUR (Karat Coalition member organization) in Bucharest on 4 and 5 June, 2010 and co-organised with KARAT coalition. The conference is supported by the Ministry of Administration and Interior of Romania (MAI). This year´s conference marks the 25th anniversary of WIDE and will be preceded, on 3 June, by an International Capacity Building day.

The WIDE Annual Conference will allow migrant women and other women from Europe, CIS countries, Latin America, Asia and Africa to come together, to share experiences and actively learn from each other.

1. Aim of the Conference

The main objectives of the Conference are:

• to create a space forinclusive and critical dialogues on how, in times of crises, migration, trade, economic development and globalization have an impact on women´s lives;
• to explore and initiate with women migrant groups a dialogue that will feed into WIDE´s day to day work;
• to create a space to exchange good experiences and to gather evidence and theoretical insights on how we can ensure that the economic, cultural, political and social rights of migrant women are protected;
• to create a space for critical assessment of EU policies around migration as they intersect with trade and development policies and impact on policies of European governments;
• to set out recommendations that will strengthen the advocacy work of WIDE and other Civil Society fora that promote women´s human rights;
• to highlight on effective strategies for influencing policies of European institutions and governments in Europe;
• to contribute to the development of alternatives to the current globalised neo-liberal economic system.

1.a. The major themes of the Conference

The Conference will have the following main themes to be considered throughout discussions and deliberations:
- The lack of coherence between European policy on migration and European trade and development policies and the negative impact this is having on the protection of economic, cultural, social and political(ECSP) rights of migrant women worldwide.
- The protection of the ECSP rights of migrant women through the discussion of political strategies and synergies, identifying entry points for advocacy and putting forward rights-based policy options/alternative visions.

The Conference will establish connections with ongoing and past work of WIDE, in particular with the debates of the WIDE 2006 Conference´What state are we in? Women's lives, changing states, expanding markets´ and WIDE´s 2009 Conference ´We care! Feminist responses to the care crisis?´.

2. About the Organisers

This year´s Conference marks the 25th anniversary of the European network WIDE. With its long history of movement-building around gender equality, development, human rights and trade policies, WIDE is in a unique position to address women´s migration in connection to trade and development. This year´s Conference is organised in joint collaboration with KARAT Coalition and AUR . AUR will bring to the Conference their 10 years of experience as NGO working to promote human rights in a South-Eastern European country which has been greatly affected by globalization and migratory movements. The KARAT coalition is now firmly established as a very strong network that puts the concerns and needs of women from Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS) in the forefront of the international arena.

3. Rationale ´Women´s Human Rights at risk: migration in the global economy´

The percentage of female migration as part of the overall migration has changed modestly since the 1960s. Women today account for almost half of the migrant population globally and female migration patterns have changed, with more women migrating as ´autonomous´ actors - a trend that is called the feminization of migration. Migration is a gendered process, with gendered modes and paths, gendered interests and motivations, gendered forms of remittances and use of remittances in the receiving households, etc.

Many women choose to migrate to improve their living conditions (and of those in their care), as a way to deal with poverty and multiple discriminations. They can become empowered through their migration. This is demonstrated by the higher degree of physical and economic independence some of them gain abroad. They can gain self-esteem by becoming family providers. However, migration also takes, in many cases, a heavy toll on women. Women may jeopardize their health and safety - by subjecting their bodies to physical work under poor conditions and by making their bodies vulnerable to all kinds human rights violations (for example, violence through trafficking). Furthermore, the societies of origin of these women can stigmatize them as women who leave their children and do not fulfill the patriarchal ideology of true motherhood.

3.a. Migration and the EU

Government policies heavily influence patterns of migration and rights for people to migrate and live as migrants. Policies of the EU and many European governments are driven by economic and political interests and have the impact of discriminating against migrants. These policies also combine with trade and development policies, having together many negative effects on migrant women and men in Europe and the sustainable development of societies in the Global South. The EU, as a whole, promotes coherence of policies and has adhered to human rights conventions. But their actual policies concerning migration, trade and development are not consistent with a policy first and foremost based on human rights and equality. Alternative models and practices need to be promoted with stronger role for the state.

Migration patterns in Europe are diverse and quickly changing. Movement from new EU member states to old member states has been occurring for some time and another migration pattern has emerged. New member states like Poland and Romania have become also states that receive migrants from non EU member states in the Balkan, Eastern Europe and Central Asia but also from countries further away eg. Thailand. These new member states started to mark the ´wall´ for the EU together with EU neighbouring states. EU governments have signed an increasing amount of agreements that commit neighbouring states such as Mali to prohibit groups of migrants to travel onwards to EU countries. These new developments raise questions on how the rights of migrant workers are protected, on the impact of migrant women and their families.

The restrictive policies on migration that the EU and its governments promote, notably the EU Return Directive of illegal immigrants, Readmission Agreements, the detention centers for undocumented migrants, go against and threaten the international and national commitments to protect the economic, cultural, social and political rights of migrant women and men. Many migrant women have little protection under national legislation or de facto live and work outside the reach of legislative protection. They live in the "shadow" area of irregular migration and irregular employment, where violation of basic human and labour rights is a common practice. In general, migration policies are not gender-specific and gender is hardly taken into account in the policy planning ­ while policies clearly have a gender-specific impact.

In almost all European countries issues such as labour migration, irregular migration, asylum and integration have become highly politically contested. Populist mobilisation on immigration themes has placed even liberal oriented governments, such as Sweden, under pressure to pursue restrictive approaches. In reality many European states benefit economically from migrant workers taking up care work, seasonal labour, low skilled and high skilled jobs. This contribution of migrant women and men and what costs they make to contribute, is not often being acknowledged. Instead, policy restrictions are placed on many of these forms of migration, putting migrants in more precarious situations. Last year, European governments adopted the Blue Card directive which sets out common criteria for permits for highly skilled migrant workers only. The policy of circular migration has been coined as a triple win policy, which allows migrants to easily move back and forth. It is not clear, however, how this is being implemented by European governments in a way that supports the migrants, instead of serving political and economic interest of EU governments.

3.b. Migration and Labour

Migration is closely related to the neo-liberal economic model of which the current financial and economic crisis is a symptom. It is a model in which economic development and policies hinge upon workers´ exploitation for profit-maximisation. In this model, work and workers can be moved voluntarily or involuntarily depending on the most profitable conditions for business. This can be in economic export zones of upcoming developing countries or in the poorly protected sectors of developed countries, such as domestic work. Female migration is not only about international migration. Internal migration is an equally, if not more important component of female migration, both in terms of the number of people it involves as well as in the amount of remittances that is sent back home. Global production systems demand a workforce that is not only highly mobile, but one that can combine skill, flexibility and low cost. This result is that in low-skill manufacturing and services there is not only an increase in women´s employment relative to men but also a deterioration in working conditions.

There is a concentration of migrant women in "traditionally" female occupations such as domestic services, entertainment, nursing, restaurant and hotel services, as well as in the assembly lines of labour-intensive manufacturing etc. Migrant women often work in informal settings and are vulnerable to exploitation , to discrimination, violence and abuse. The rights of women and children of migrant women without a legal status of residence, are often violated because of the restrictive legislation in destination countries, in areas such as education and social care.

In Europe, an expanding area of employment for legal and undocumented immigrant women is domestic and care work. It is and will continue to be a sector with important economic impact on European societies. There are questions to address as to their protection of rights, the role of the states and the power relations between migrant women and their employers. The work of these migrant women often facilitates other women´s economic advancement, since the stereotypical gender division of labour has not changed significantly. It is important to note that many concerns around the trafficking of women are not only those for the sex industry but also the more general trafficking of women as new slave labourers. For example the legislation around au pairs in some European countries shows gaps in legislation for these domestic workers. It makes these women particularly vulnerable to unregulated and unscrupulous agencies in their country of origin.

3.c. Migration and Development

Many women are forced to migrate, due to conflicts and disasters, but also due to large scale projects that supposedly aim to increase ´development´. Examples of this include migration to supply labour for large-scale infrastructure projects such as dams, roads, ports, airports; urban clearance initiatives; mining and deforestation. It seems such projects serve better the needs of big companies, thus having an impact on poor men and women, for example on indigenous women.

Policy attention to migration has increased in countries of origin. Policy makers have become aware of the contribution migrants can make to development. Remittances (money that migrants send back home) are a case in point. Research shows that remittances tend to have a positive impact on household income. The amount of remittances globally exceeds the level of official development aid and therefore has a significant impact on local development. When governments view remittances as contribution to their economies, they should be reminded that though migration can have an empowering impact on men and women, there are also many costs (social, physical etc.) incurred. For some states the dependence on remittances is already so high that their societies are greatly impacted at times when global crises leave many migrants without employment. Some countries of origin have facilitated women´s migration in an attempt to deal with pressures on the internal labour market and as an income-generating measure. The first role of the State should be, however, to ensure universal access to social services such as education.