Even as this statement is being written, we can expect the Convention’s EU oppositors to be doing discreet spadework to undermine support for it. And they do not lack for potential allies, as many FDW-receiving countries would tend to support initiatives that preserve the oppressive status quo on labor migration, and this would certainly include preventing the passage of the proposed DW Convention. All migrant organizations and advocates who are inside and outside the ongoing 100th Session of the ILC should bear this in mind, and conduct their own lobbying and advocacy efforts to counter this conservative and anti-migrant drumbeating by EU members.
As the current global crisis deepens and impacts severely on wages, jobs and other labor rights, governments in labor-receiving countries will rely increasingly on migrant-scapegoating in order to deflect the blame from themselves and their bankrupt neoliberal programs. Manifesting their opposition to the proposed DW Convention is certainly one way of highlighting this xenophobic mantra for the consumption of their restless constituents at home, especially those who buy into the Rightist concept of a “Fortress Europe”. As matters stand, these governments are still powerful enough to muster the numbers in contentious meetings such as the ongoing ILC, and so a multiplicity of methods in advocating for the rights of foreign domestic workers and labor in general is called for. Defeat in one arena of struggle (for we would be disregardful of historical lessons if we do not consider temporary setbacks) should not be a case for capitulation in others, and an all-too-real possibility of seeing the DW Convention voted down next week should prepare migrant organizations and advocates for the exploration of other channels of political advocacy.
Through its two core thematic programs, Migrant Trade Unionization (MTU) and Domestic Works As Work (DWAW), APMM will do its share in pushing for local and international statutes that promote the core rights of FDWs. With or without the passage of the DW Convention, it will remain committed to a comprehensive form of migrant advocacy that aims for social justice in its profoundest sense. In the coming months and years, we hope to be able to see the migrant workers’ movement mature into this kind of advocacy and expand its framework beyond statutory guarantees set by monolithic institutions specializing in the “management” of labor migration.
