Restructuring Labor Migration Thesis
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1348064
Towards Transnational Labor Citizenship:
Restructuring Labor Migration to Reinforce Workers’ Rights
A Preliminary Report on Emerging Experiments
Jennifer Gordon
Fordham Law School
January 2009
Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1348064
GORDON RESTRUCTURING LABOR MIGRATION
Towards Transnational Labor Citizenship: Restructuring Labor Migration to Reinforce Workers’ Rights
A Preliminary Report on Emerging Experiments
Jennifer Gordon Fordham Law School
January 2009
The author thanks the Ford Foundation for the primary funding for the research
and writing of this report, and also gratefully acknowledges the support of the Dean’s
Office at Fordham Law School and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race,
Ethnicity, and Diversity at the University of California-Berkeley Law School.
GORDON RESTRUCTURING LABOR MIGRATION
TOWARDS TRANSNATIONAL LABOR CITIZENSHIP: RESTRUCTURING LABOR MIGRATION
TO REINFORCE WORKERS’ RIGHTS A Preliminary Report on Emerging Experiments
Contents
PROLOGUE….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..1
I. INTRODUCING TRANSNATIONAL LABOR CITIZENSHIP…………….………………………3
A. Low-Wage Labor Migration in the Context of the
United States……..………………………………………………………………………………………3
B. A Response: Transnational Labor Citizenship……………….………………..5
C. Central Principles of Transnational Labor Citizenship………………..7
D. Emerging Experiments……………………………………………………………….……………9
II. ORIGIN COUNTRY ENFORCEMENT OF MIGRANT RIGHTS………………….…………..9
A. Bi-lateral Accords on Low-Wage Labor Migration………………………10
B. Unilateral Efforts by Origin Countries to Protect
Migrant Rights…………………………………………………………………………………………15
C. Contrasting Approaches: Mexico and the Philippines..………………18
D. Challenges and Lessons Learned………………………………………………………..25
III. EMERGING EXPERIMENTS WITH MOBILE LABOR CITIZENSHIP….……………..…27
A. Understanding Mobile Labor Citizenship……………………………………..27
B. The Experiments……………………………………………………………………………..………31
1. Construction: Two Approaches…………………………………………….….31 a. Union-to-Union Worker Referrals…………………………………..………33
b. Partnerships between Origin and Destination
Country Unions……………………………………….…………………………………35
2. Two Industries at the Bottom of the Wage Ladder………………39 a. Agriculture: A Destination Country Union
Builds a Base in an Origin Country…………………………………………..39
b. Domestic Work: An Origin Country Union
Builds a Base in a Destination Country …………………………………..41
C. Challenges and Lessons Learned….……………………………………………………43