Women

Access to Justice in a Climate of Fear: New Hurdles and Barriers for Survivors of Human Trafficking and Domestic Violence

Kathryn Finley, managing attorney for the Tahirih Justice Center’s greater Washington, DC office, writes on the particularly high hurdles and barriers faced by immigrant survivors of violence in accessing the US legal system. This paper relies on examples gathered from Tahirih Justice Center’s direct work with immigrant survivors of gender-based violence. It also reviews the dynamics of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking for immigrant victims, and the immigration remedies available to victims of these crimes. Additionally, this paper explores the detrimental impact of the administration’s enforcement initiatives on immigrant victims of crime and on public safety.

Is Regular Migration Safer Migration? Insights from Thailand

This paper challenges the assumption within international development programming that regular and orderly migration is also safer for migrants. Based on data collected from Cambodian, Burmese, Laotian, and Vietnamese labor migrants recently returned from Thailand, this paper illustrates the limits of regular migration to provide meaningfully “safer” experiences. It observes that migrant workers who move through legal channels do not systematically experience better outcomes. While regular migrants report better pay and working conditions than irregular migrants, they also systematically report working conditions that do not meet legal standards, and routinely experience contract substitution. Regular migrants also have a higher likelihood of experiencing exploitation, contract breaches, harassment, abuse, and involuntary return. These findings challenge mainstream development discourses seeking to promote safer migration experiences through expanding migration infrastructure. The paper recommends: 1) re-examining the conflation of “safe” with “regular and orderly” migration and advocating for practices that increase migrant safety, 2) focusing on broadening rights offered to migrant workers, and 3) strengthening and expanding oversight of labor standards and migrant regulations.

2018 Whole-of-Community Conference | Session V: Refugees, Dreamers, Unaccompanied Minors, and TPS Beneficiaries

In July 2018, scholars, researchers, community organizers, service providers, local officials, leaders of faith communities, immigrant advocates, and others gathered together for a three-day event on how diverse groups in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana are working together to meet the...

2018 Whole-of-Community Conference | Session II: Mobilizing with Immigrant Communities Throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana

2018 Whole-of-Community Conference | Session I: Challenges Facing Immigrant Communities in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana: Laying the Groundwork

New from IMR: Recessions, Wage Gaps, Gender, and Immigrant Families across Generations

The Fall 2018 edition of the International Migration Review (IMR) is now available online and in print through paid or institutional subscription. This edition is sorted thematically into three sections. The first section – which is on recessions, wage gaps,...

CMSOnAir | Her Excellency Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés

This CMSOnAir episode features an interview with Her Excellency Ms. María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, president of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. President Espinosa Garcés speaks with Kevin Appleby, CMS’s senior director of international migration policy, on global migration issues in advance of the upcoming intergovernmental conference to adopt the global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration, which will be held in December 2018 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Faith Communities Should Oppose the Administration’s Proposed Public Charge Rule and Broader Attack on Immigrant Families

On October 10, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published in the Federal Register a 447-page proposed rule changing the definition of a “public charge,” a term applied to legal immigrants who access certain public benefits. While in previous...

Meeting the Needs of Women and Girl Migrants and Refugees in the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework: The Unique Role of Faith-Based Organizations

This paper illustrates the unique role of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in supporting vulnerable women and girl migrants and refugees and provides frameworks for FBOs in taking action. First, it outlines the major challenges that women and girl migrants and refugees face in their countries of origin as well as in transit, reception, and destination countries. Then, it argues that FBOs can play a unique and vital role in supporting vulnerable women and girl migrants and refugees due to their fluidity among stakeholders, their ability to distance themselves from the power dynamics of humanitarian aid, and their long-term and grounded presence. It provides the following approaches for FBOs in supporting vulnerable women and girl migrants and refugees: 1) addressing root causes through their presence in countries of origin, 2) opening the hearts and minds of people in host communities, 3) using the moral authority of faith leadership to subvert gender paradigms and make women and girls leaders and teachers.

Protecting Families and Facilitating Their Integration

“Our shared response may be articulated by four verbs: welcoming, protecting, promoting and integrating migrants and refugees.” – Pope Francis I, August 2017 Who Are the Migrants? Where Do They Come From? Where Are They Going? Individuals and families around...