Social Protection For Unskilled Migrant Workers In Sri Lanka

This book is about the social protection of lower-skilled migrants from Sri Lanka. It reasons out the importance of protecting Sri Lankan migrant workers considering the significant economic contribution of lower-skilled migrant workers and their higher level of exposure to risks at all stages of international migration: pre-departure, on the job, and after returnee reintegration. The book explores social protection programmes for low-skilled immigrants from three perspectives: legal aspects, national policies, and programmes. The chapter on legal background for protecting migrant workers focuses on declarations and on labour laws on the national and international level. Policies and programmes identify national level labour policies and other related policies that apply to migrant workers, as well as available social protection programmes for Sri Lankan migrant workers. In turn, the solutions for minimizing the related risks faced by Sri Lankan migrant workers. Highlighting the economic contribution of migrant workers and their vulnerability at all stages of migration, this book offers a timely and important contribution for policy makers and practitioners as well as scholars of migration studies, public policy and related fields.

This publication examines the need to expand social protection coverage of the informal sector to support working age productivity, reduce vulnerability, and improve economic opportunity. Case studies from Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand offer suggestions to close social protection gaps and recommend policy solutions to create equitable and inclusive social protection programs for informal workers.

For Temporary Migrant Workers (TMW) as workers, the international law of fundamental labor rights (freedom of association, as example) as well as the domestic law in relation to labor standards constitute de jure or de facto an immense patchwork. TMW are at the lower ladder of the typology of migrant rights organised around a mix of “immigration-labour law-social protection” rules: residency, length of stay, worker's status, explicit statutory exclusion and other factors often deriving from statutory law constitute indirect discrimination against TMW. More specifically, TMW are in need of social protection. This paper pays attention to the right of TMW to social security and to social protection. Our starting point is the acknowledgment that, according to international human rights law, all TMW are travelling with a bundle of human rights. Our specific aim is to go beyond the wages workers' issue that shaped the situation of migrant workers over time and to examine the need for social protection of TMW as a human right. A first section will propose a definition of those migrant workers qualified by the literature as 'second wave' of TMW. We believe their situation carries some specific manifestations of direct and of indirect discrimination. Section 2 revisits the issue of the definition of social protection as it seems to us that confusion still reigns when time comes to distinguish social security, social insurance and social protection. Section 3 offers an historical and technical overview of the normative evolution of the right to social protection of all migrant workers. Without disregarding the positive achievements realized by bilateral social security agreements in that domain, it concludes that the spirit of consecutive conventions and recommendations adopted by the ILO does not address the reality of fixed-term TMW. May be the 2006 ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, although not binding, is a more appropriate approach to address such needs. Section 4 examines the right of all migrant workers to social protection as guaranteed by the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, which entered in force in 2003. Surprisingly, this Convention does not provide appropriate answers to the needs of short term migrant workers whose needs often rely on a basic system of social protection that is not linked to wages and to contributory benefits. Finally, Section 5 examines the recently adopted UN CESCR General Comment 19 on the right to social security (2009). We believe that this Comment truly captures the essence of the right to equality of treatment that TMW should be able to benefit from. In conclusion, the crafting of the migrant workers' right to social protection has truly been an evolutionary process and it is still unfolding. As more and more TMW are explicitly not welcomed to legally establish themselves in the country where they work, such evolution is welcomed.

This third and last open access volume in the series takes the perspective of non-EU countries on immigrant social protection. By focusing on 12 of the largest sending countries to the EU, the book tackles the issue of the multiple areas of sending state intervention towards migrant populations. Two “mirroring” chapters are dedicated to each of the 12 non-EU states analysed (Argentina, China, Ecuador, India, Lebanon, Morocco, Russia, Senegal, Serbia, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey). One chapter focuses on access to social benefits across five core policy areas (health care, unemployment, old-age pensions, family benefits, guaranteed minimum resources) by discussing the social protection policies that non-EU countries offer to national residents, non-national residents, and non-resident nationals. The second chapter examines the role of key actors (consulates, diaspora institutions and home country ministries and agencies) through which non-EU sending countries respond to the needs of nationals abroad. The volume additionally includes two chapters focusing on the peculiar case of the United Kingdom after the Brexit referendum. Overall, this volume contributes to ongoing debates on migration and the welfare state in Europe by showing how non-EU sending states continue to play a role in third country nationals’ ability to deal with social risks. As such this book is a valuable read to researchers, policy makers, government employees and NGO’s.

This volume presents innovative approaches to expand social protection coverage such as schemes for migrants in China, Bolsa Verde in Brazil, employment injury insurance in Bangladesh and Malaysia, the rural employment guarantee in India, schemes to address climate change in China and Philippines, child benefits in El Salvador and South Africa and a monotax in Uruguay to promote formalization and protection of workers. The volumes in this ILO series present best country experiences, useful for South-South learning, for practitioners, and to provide the basis for better informed policy-making.