From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

FROM POVERTY TO POWERnumber of‘framing’assumptions that influence the debate on migration:that it is morally legitimate to discriminate on the basis of nationality;that development is about countries, not individuals; that our responsibilitytowards others varies with geographical proximity. 93This raises the thorny question of whether there is a ‘right tomigrate’. The UN Declaration of Human Rights states only that‘everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence withinthe borders of each State’(so there is a right to internal migration) andthat ‘everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own,and to return to his country’ (so there is a right to emigrate but noobligation on any country to admit the migrant, excluding asylumcases, which are covered elsewhere). More recently the UN’s SpecialRapporteur on the right to food has argued that the right of asylumshould be expanded to include people fleeing from hunger andfamine, which would certainly include some of those currently classifiedas ‘economic migrants’. 94 In general however, there is little comfort tomigrants from international human rights law: they are on their own.Stopping migration is both wrong and impossible. But for theforeseeable future, arguing for a return to a world of completely freemovement of people is a forlorn task. An approach with moreprospect of success would be to ask, ‘What are the policies towardmigration that would be most beneficial to the world’s currently poorpeople (nearly all of whom reside in poor countries) and yet are (orcould be) still politically acceptable in rich countries?’ 95 Such anapproach would rule out two common proposals: select migrantsbased on a combination of qualifications and wealth, or agree rulesthrough the WTO. The first approach would prevent most poorpeople from migrating, while any agreement in the WTO is likely to beextremely weak and ineffective. Bilateral agreements provide moreprospect of success.Improving the contribution of migration to development requiresaction at a global level, as well as by governments, backed up by publicpressure, both North and South. In the long term, the flow of peopledeserves as much attention as that of capital or goods, perhapsthrough a World Migration Organisation, which would replace thelargely toothless International Organization for Migration. 96 In Europea Common Migration Policy could help by rescuing the issue from the338