Migrant workers have contributed significantly to the development of their home countries through sending proportions of their income (remittances) home to family and friends to enable their communities to access healthcare, education, safe food and water and better living conditions. But outrageous bank transfer fees take large sums of these remittances from struggling migrants and their families.
Migrant worker contributions have far exceeded (by three times) official development aid and assistance. This recently led the UN Special Rapportuer on the rights of Migrants (François Crépeau) to credit migrant workers (rather than State policies) for helping countries meet Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline.
Yet, significant proportions of remittances (20 percent or so) are lost in bank and transfer agency fees. It is thought that the loss is highest in Africa where an estimated $2bn is shockingly swallowed up by fees and charges imposed by banks and money transfer companies such as Western Union.
On Monday November 10, 2014, Australia joined other G-20 countries in a call to put pressure on banks and financial agencies to cut transfer fees on remittances. It is expected that an agreement will be reached at the G-20 summit in Brisbane (Australia) this weekend and that the G-20 countries will agree to act on the problem of remittance fees as part of the post-2015 development agenda.
Although this is an important development, Special Rapporteur Crépeau insists that the post-2015 development agenda must not focus on solely reducing the cost and increasing the flow of remittances, but rather on the human cost of migration. Any post-2015 development agenda must target the root causes of unequal and unjust global development, and apply a human rights centered approach for sustainable development going forward.
In 2000 member states of the UN adopted the Millennium Declaration. The Declaration called on States to meet eight MDGs which range from halving extreme poverty rates to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, by 2015.
On 24 October 2014, addressing representatives of the 193 member states of the UN General Assembly, François Crépeau spoke critically of the MDGs. Crépeau said that while Governments had pledged to strive for the protection and promotion of all human rights, the Goal framework failed to live up to that pledge.
Instead, he said “the Goals encouraged technical fixes and focused on the low-hanging fruit, rather than targeting the root causes of development problems.” The MDGs failed to address or prevent rising inequality within and between countries, leading to social exclusion.
Any G-20 agreement on remittances – while marking a noteworthy short-term improvement – would highlight a continued focus on meeting easy targets. There are no signs that any move to reduce transfer fees on remittances would be part of a larger project to address the structural root causes of unjust and unequal global development.
In April 2014, the World Bank reported that international migrants from developing countries are expected to send $436 billion in remittances to their home countries this year (rising to $516 billion in 2016), despite some host countries increasing the number of deportations of migrants.
That remittances exceed official development aid by more than three times means that for many developing countries, remittances are a crucial source of income. They also surpass earnings from major exports, and a substantial portion of imports.
For example the World Bank reports that, in Nepal, remittances are nearly double the country’s revenues from exports of goods and services, while in Sri Lanka and the Philippines, they are over 50 percent and 38 percent, respectively.
In India, remittances during 2013 were $70bn, more than the $65bn earned from the country’s flagship software services exports. In Uganda, remittances are double the country’s income from its main export of coffee.
Remittance contributions are considerable, and reflect the emotional ties and commitment that many migrants feel towards their communities of origin. However, that the contributions of migrant workers (through remittances) outstrip the income developing countries receive from their export of flagship national exports (such as software and coffee in the cases of India and Uganda, for example), and even foreign aid, is disturbing.
The World Bank statistics highlight the lack of equitable payment developing countries receive for goods and services exported for Western consumption, and the continuing exploitation of cheap labor and resources in developing countries by corporations largely based in the global-North. Further, migrant workers who send remittances home from host countries often work in dirty, difficult and dangerous working conditions.
Through 2000 – 2014, while many of the MDGs have largely been met, the profits of large multi-national corporations and banks have increased and wealth is more concentrated now than ever before. Inequality within and between countries has increased and wages of workers the world over have stagnated.
On 24 October 2014, Special Rapportuer François Crépeau said that some Governments had viewed the MDGs as an agenda for economic growth rather than a means of improving human rights.
Describing the MDGs as “technocratic” rather than transformative, Crépeau said the MDG approach focused “only on what was easily measurable and not on what was important, such as the empowerment of marginalized groups.”
Migrants working in precarious, irregular situations are one such marginalized group. Migrants contribute significantly as members of the global workforce fulfilling the growth, development and demands of global production in a globalized economy. Profit incentives “frequently come at a human cost” said Crépeau. States are ineffective at monitoring and sanctioning businesses that exploit migrants for their cheap labor.
Companies also threaten to withdraw operations and / or capital from a country if they find environmental or labor standards impact upon profit – dis-incentivizing States from taking protective action to protect human rights and ensure sustainable development. At the same time, the EU and USA are secretly negotiating a trade (TTIP) deal that may disempower States from regulating business conduct as it relates to health and the environment.
Making matters worse, increased migration has led to a rise in anti-migration sentiments and xenophobia, which has resulted in greater discrimination and violence against migrants, given that they are portrayed as taking away jobs and draining social services in the host country.
Western Europe has seen a rise in right-wing nationalist political parties, parties that distribute anti-immigration propaganda and spout misinformation. Western media devotedly propagates and repeats misinformation in spite of the fact that immigration has been found to have a minimal impact on unemployment of residents and a positive overall impact on employment generation and investment (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, International Migration Outlook 2013 (Paris, OECD Publishing, 2013).
As shown in the experience of meeting the 2000 – 2015 MDGs, development targets can be fulfilled without having any real impact on ensuring a more equal and just world. In looking forward to the post-2015 development agenda, Crépeau called on States to put equality – a precondition of all human rights – firmly at the center. He called for a post-2015 development agenda that puts human rights first and aims to tackle other social and economic woes arising from climate change, natural disasters, conflict and the global financial system.
However, prospects for a movement towards meaningful, just and sustainable development is slim. During the 2012 Rio+20 sustainable development negotiations, Canada, the G-77, and the U.S. united against reaffirming the responsibility of businesses to respect rights.
Although, a number of G-77 Latin-American countries (including Ecuador) have since called for a development model that goes further than the MDG framework, putting people before capital and profit. A UN study published in July 2014 reported that countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have worked to reduce inequality within their countries, defying the global trend towards increased inequality. They have also already met many of the MDGs including halving levels of extreme poverty by 2015, and Ecuador has met seven of the eight Goals.
But it is questionable to what extent a number of other States are willing, or able (in the context of a globalized economy, deregulation and secret trade deals) to protect the human rights of vulnerable and marginalized individuals, reducing inequality and ensuring the equal dignity of all human beings.
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