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MIGRATION
Introduction
The right to mobility for employment is an important human right; especially where local economies offer limited livelihood alternatives. Intervention strategies should, therefore, be directed at reducing the vulnerability of migrants, not at reducing migration itself.
Migration has become a key facet of today's world. Migrants living outside of their country of
birth are 191 million persons (International Migration 2006, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division) (www.unpopulation.org). Trans-border migration has always been a part of human history. What makes today's international migration different is both its unprecedented velocity of movement at so many different points around the globe and the complexity of attending factors such as states' sovereignty, universalities of human/labor rights and vested interests of different groups involved in migration processes.
There are two forms of migration; "forced migration" - fleeing from persecution and for security reasons (including internally displaced persons or refugees, victims of forced relocation for development projects, famine, natural disaster, and/or armed conflicts) and "voluntary migration" - seeking greater economic betterment. Difficulty in distinguishing between forced migrants and voluntary migrants is one of the intricacies in contemporary migration. For far too many, particularly the ones from the developing world, migration becomes a survival necessity rather than a choice.
Migration is a by-product of rapid economic and political globalization. It occurs under circumstances of poverty, unemployment, underemployment, economic and political instability, landlessness or the deterioration of the environment.
Women constitute almost half of all global migrants worldwide-95 million or 49.6 per cent. The 191 million migrants enumerated outside the country of their birth in 2005, constitute nearly 3 per cent of the world's population. While the United States received the highest number of migrants, India stood eighth in rank, according to the State of World Population 2006 report - `A Passage to Hope: Women and International Migration,' released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). From the modern-day enslavement of trafficking victims to the exploitation of domestic workers, millions of female migrants face hazards that testify to the lack of adequate rights protection and opportunities to migrate safely and legally.
Trafficked women are usually forced into sex work, domestic or sweatshop labour and human trafficking now constitutes the third most lucrative illicit trade after drugs and arms smuggling and nets an estimated $ 7 billion to $ 12 billion. An estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Of these, 80 per cent are women and girls, according to the report.
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