Temporary Economic Migration and Rights Activism - an organisational perspective

Abstract

Temporary contract migration schemes have experienced a revival in Europe. Such schemes mean that a significant number of migrant workers have limited access to rights and entitlements, let alone full citizenship. The temporary nature of their migration poses obstacles to traditional ways of organising workers. This changing landscape of migration dynamics, thus, requires a changing landscape of migrant rights activism also.

The focus in this paper is on collective activism by social justice organisations and their engagement with, and handling of, the subject matter of migrant workers’ rights. Based on insights from scholars working on social movements and transnational advocacy networks, I argue that a trans-national and trans-institutional perspective is required in addressing temporary migrants’ socio-economic and legal insecurities, and it is the concept of the ‘network’ which captures best these interactions between multiple actors at multiple sites.