USA: Union releases report outlining global framework to protect migrant worker rights in the context of climate-induced migration
In April 2024, AFL-CIO released a report calling for a new approach to climate-induced migration that centralises migrant worker rights and the rights of migrants' families.
Establishing a coherent, pro-worker climate migration framework will help all of us—and failure to do so puts us all at risk. The proven reality is that without adequate guardrails, employers take advantage of migrant workers’ precarious status to cut wages and lower standards. Escalating levels of climate displacement only will exacerbate such vulnerabilities.AFL-CIO
The report calls for governments to promote decent work, including through:
- Equal labour rights for workers regardless of their migration status.
- A just transition to clean energy shaped by workers and their unions.
- Investment in high quality job creation across origin, transit and destination.
- Promotion of climate mitigation and decent work that supports the “right to stay” for those at risk of displacement.
- Growth in humanitarian pathways that allow permanent resettlement for migrants and their families.
- Inclusive workforce integration strategies that empower migrants and promote “economic growth with equity”.
The report makes several specific calls to the US government, including strengthening labour laws and holding companies accountable, regularising irregular migrants (including through a more expansive use of Temporary Protected Status and Deferred Action), expanding and enhancing humanitarian pathways, reforming existing visa programmes, and supporting the role of unions abroad and at home.
The impact of failed policies is evident around the world, including in the United States, where an increase in regional climate displacement coupled with inadequate humanitarian pathways and underfunded labor agencies have coalesced to enable the unthinkable— the resurgence of child labor exploitation in the 21st centuryAFL-CIO
The report suggests a global framework to protect work rights in the context of climate-induced migration. It includes a Venn diagram of three different spheres that should be aligned – climate, labour, and migration – and a policy framework that addresses each overlapping sphere, covering the right to stay, resettlement pathways, just transition, green job creation, freedom of association, and workforce integration.