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ABSTRACT
The ‘migration–development nexus’ has become an established development mantra with debate surrounding the ability of migration to promote economic growth and reduce poverty. The optimism of this debate is paired with a push to control migration through the promotion of temporary migration programmes and initiatives considered to support the regular movement of migrants. This dominant paradigm has come under criticism, however, for overlooking the multidimensional costs of migration for migrants and their families. As evidence on the costs of migration gathers, debates within policy and scholarly arenas have turned to how to integrate human rights into migration and development initiatives. The discourse surrounding this debate largely draws on the capabilities approach, which sees expanding human capabilities as the central role of development. In this paper, we analyse the resulting discourse and implementation of this approach to demonstrate how this theoretical framework is utilised to conceptualise diverse outcomes for migrant worker rights within global governance priorities for managing migration. We argue that greater attention is needed in the application of the capabilities approach in order to resonate with policy-makers without compromising the integrity of the approach or separating migrants from their intrinsic human rights.
Acknowledgements
Dr Kerry Preibisch, brilliant and much loved teacher, researcher, and mentor, died on 28 January 2016. Through her impressive career, Kerry became an internationally recognised scholar for her work in rural sociology, globalised agricultural and food systems, and the people who labour in these systems, particularly migrant farm workers. As a professor, Kerry taught and mentored many students, inspiring them through her work and advocacy to care deeply about the lives and rights of migrants. W. D. and Y. S. are immensely grateful for Dr Preibsich’s leadership throughout the writing of this manuscript and for her support and guidance in our lives. The authors also thank Neha Misra at the Solidarity Center, Washington, DC, Craig Johnson and Dustin Ciufo at the University of Guelph, and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments. An earlier version of this manuscript was published through the Transformation of Work research series produced by the Solidarity Center. The views expressed here are those of the authors alone.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
ORCID
Warren Dodd http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0774-7644
Notes
1. These include: (1) life, (2) bodily health, (3) bodily integrity, (4) senses, imagination, and thought, (5) emotions, (6) practical reason, (7) affiliation, (8) other species, (9) play, and (10) control over one's environment (Nussbaum Citation1997, 287–288).