Stranded migrants: a call to rethink the current labour migration paradigm

Abstract

Examining recent cases in which migrant workers have been deemed 'stranded' and the emerging international discourse on the concept of stranded migrants, we explore the need for clarity with regard to who stranded migrants are, and for a paradigm shift in the governance of labour migration in response to such circumstances. The crisis in Libya, flooding in Thailand and the tsunami/nuclear disaster in Japan -all of which have legitimately rendered migrants stranded -and the ensuing talk about stranding at the international level reveal significant gaps in the current thinking on labour migration. Migrants stranded in emergencies call attention to serious flaws in the prevailing labour migration regime, and their struggle for the recognition of their rights illuminates the need for a thorough overhaul of accepted practices in migration governance. Furthermore, the emerging international discourse on stranded migrants points to a worryingly myopic understanding of the concept of stranding that risks relegating stranded migrants to the realm of humanitarian assistance, smartly giving states leeway to circumvent more complex conversations about the human rights failings of the labour migration regime that continually lead migrants to become 'stuck' in countries of transit and/or destination.

Migration Disruption: Crisis and Continuity in the Cambodian Mass Returns1

“…In doing so, it stresses the potential that such events hold as sites of interrogation. As Gois and Campbell (2013) aptly note, often our conversations about migration crises treat the surface‐level problem of migrant vulnerability without questioning the complex underpinnings of the labor migration regime that enables such vulnerability to be present in the first place. This paper has attempted to illuminate these underpinnings through an exploration of how experiences of the exodus demonstrate and make visible everyday dynamics of precarity, immobility, and vulnerability.…”

“…Yet the typical framework for theorizing and researching such moments tends to be within the logic of “crisis” — where a period of relative stability is punctuated by an extraordinary crisis, which has a set of extraordinary consequences (Lindley 2014). For instance, in some of the earliest work on mass expulsions in the Global South, Van Hear (1998, 23) explores a range of cases of “acute forms of migration transition,” which he also terms “migration crises,” and describes as “involving sudden, massive, disorderly population movement” which may be “pivotal episodes … signal[ing] a juncture between one migration order and the next.” More recently, two growing literatures have drawn attention to contemporary forms of migration disruption: the displacement and stranding of non‐citizens in contexts of violence, conflict, and disaster (Collyer 2010; Gois and Campbell 2013; Koser 2014; Black and Collyer 2014; Martin, Weerasinghe, and Taylor 2014; Weerasinghe et al. 2015; Pailey 2016), and migrant return or retrenchment as a result of the global economic crisis (Koser 2009; Martin 2009; Cottle and Keys 2010; Fernandez 2010; Buckley 2012; Sirkeci, Cohen, and Ratha 2012; Spitzer and Piper 2014).…”

“…Only rarely have such efforts been made in analyses of migration crises, a critique Gois and Campbell (2013, 157), suggest is:a worryingly myopic understanding…that risks relegating stranded migrants to the realm of humanitarian assistance, smartly giving states leeway to circumvent more complex conversations about the human rights failings of the labour migration regime that continually lead migrants to become ‘stuck’ in countries of transit and/or destination.…”

Operation ‘Bring Them Home’: learning from the large-scale repatriation of overseas Filipino workers in times of crisis

“…Human mobility restrictions in response to COVID-19, for example, have interrupted international migration flows, throwing migrants into situations of disorder and uncertainty (Dommaraju, 2020). During disruptions, many migrants end up stranded, including those who have lost their jobs or have been abandoned by their employers (Gois & Campbell, 2013). Some seek assistance to obtain lost or confiscated documents, to secure exit clearances in order to leave the host country, or to access financial support for sheltering and transportation (Mawby & Martin, 2016).…”

“…For many sending states, repatriation is regarded as a form of assistance or protection for migrant workers in these distress situations. Migrant-sending countries like the Philippines, Thailand and Sri Lanka have incorporated welfare assistance in their labour migration systems, which had previously been the focus of diplomatic and foreign service posts (Agunias & Ruiz, 2007;Gois & Campbell, 2013;Ireland, 2018). These services include loan programmes, insurance provision, repatriation and reintegration services like education and skills training (Agunias & Ruiz, 2007;Mawby & Martin, 2016).…”