Millions of migrants are on the move around the world today, yet international human rights protections are all too frequently flouted by those in power. Recognizing and protecting the shared humanity between ourselves and the migrant community is of critical importance. As refugees from Afghanistan, Haiti, and elsewhere seek new lives abroad, the global community must step forward to ensure their rights are respected.
Recent efforts to brutalize migrants must be loudly denounced if we wish to avoid wasting the progress on human rights we’ve made in the 21st century. Here’s why the international business community benefits by standing up for migrant rights.
Cruelty today leads to disaster tomorrow
There’s no denying that cruelty directed toward migrants and refugees imposes tragic costs upon these vulnerable groups. Religious and political refugees seeking protection abroad and migrant workers seeking to fill international labour shortages are regularly met with brutality when they try to claim asylum. Make no mistake about it – any cruelty dispensed toward migrants today will cause a backlash in the future.
Those who castigate migrant workers as evil and dangerous soon discover the economic pain of living without those same migrant labourers. Initial enthusiasm to expel migrant labourers from Britain has now led to critical labour and resource shortages which portend economic malaise in the future. Those who rejected the crucial role of migrant labourers are reaping what they once sowed, but now everyone in the global economy has to pay the price for such folly.
“Opponents of migration seldom understand the immense economic costs they’re imposing on the rest of us,” notes Joblio CEO and migration expert Jon Purizhansky. “While they couch their arguments in the language of protectionism, migrant labourers are actually an unfettered economic good.”
Nevertheless, thousands of migrants are subject to brutal conditions fostered by some of the world’s wealthiest governments. Terrifying cavalry raids and extralegal deportations continue to harass migrant populations and plant the seeds of a long-term economic downturn. The global business community must loudly protect the humanity of migrants for reasons both morally and financially sound.
Removing refugees from risk
The global community must come together and remove refugees from risk. By developing useful infrastructure that can help humans when they’re on the move, we can inject desperately needed transparency and efficiency into our international system for handling migration. This requires looking at the gaps in our current system to determine when, where, and how we’re failing migrants as they make their journeys.
We must also remain vigilant as the pandemic continues to spread, especially in those underprivileged portions of the world with limited access to vaccines. The United Nations is already sounding the alarm and reminding the public that human rights will be drastically diminished by the continued spread of COVID-19. Business titans and political leaders must resolve themselves to improve the international migration system sooner rather than later.
“At Joblio, we’re constantly searching for ways to improve the wellbeing of migrants,” says Jon Purizhansky. “While we’re happy to lead the way, we want the support of others in our mission to establish new global standards in human rights protections.”
Building a better future for everyone
In addition to developing new technologies to preserve human rights, public attention must be paid to human rights abuses when they occur. Nevertheless, real change requires more than merely paying attention to the optics of ongoing international news stories. Business leaders can’t simply chime in whenever it’s convenient – protecting the human rights of our migrant workers must be a constant and paramount priority.
To build a better future, let’s commit ourselves to ensuring the rights of refugees and migrants everywhere. Let us ignore temporary outrage and invest ourselves instead in the slow but steady process of removing harmful actors from the practice of human migration. Platforms like Joblio are just the start – once we are united in a common purpose, the international community has the power to remake and radically improve the current international migration regime.