Migrant workers

This study reviews and analyses existing national legislative and administrative provisions and bi-lateral agreements regarding social welfare services for migrant workers and their family against the background of relevant international instruments. The following topics are examined under three chapter headings: conditions for the reunion of families; social services in the country of employment (education and vocational training of children, housing, health, cultural and religious activities, etc.); and, social services in the country of origin (help with recruitment procedures, emigration formalities, preparation for life abroad, assistance for family remaining in the home country). The study takes into account the changed conditions of international labour migration since 1973, with the virtual stoppage of recruitment by Western European countries and the increasing reliance of Middle Eastern countries on foreign manpower. Legislation and policies in the countries examined show that international instruments by the means cover all legal aspects of the welfare of migrant workers, are often too general, and therefore too weak, to achieve the intended goals, and are seldom fully applied, even when ratified, by all the states concerned. Bilateral agreements and national legislative and administrative regulations are labour demand-and-supply oriented, dealing with the migrant as a worker only and not as a human being, and make no provision for legal security, equality of opportunity or protection from discrimination. The report stresses the need for collective action to induce governments to assume their commitments under existing international instruments and to revise and supplement these instruments to make them more responsive to the needs of migrants.