The Role of Effective Enforcement in International Law on Labour Migration
Labour migrants shall according to the ILO and UN conventions on labour migration be provided with equal treatment with local workers with regard to working conditions including pay. Factors like migration law (creating dependence on employers and fears of expulsion) and limited access to justice, challenge the enforcement of the equal treatment principle. The social dumping argument has been raised by actors arguing for the closure of borders. However, labour migration is a feature of contemporary labour markets and the future world of work. Instead of rising walls measures to overcome obstacles against equal treatment must be considered. Effective monitoring and enforcement are crucial in this respect. The explicit enforcement provisions in the ILO and UN conventions are quite vague. In this paper it will be analysed to what extent the monitoring bodies of the relevant ILO and UN conventions demand for effective monitoring and enforcement of the equal treatment principle in their comments to the state parties and what kind of measures they suggest that the state parties shall take to make the equal treatment principle a reality. The analysis reveals that the monitoring bodies apply a context based interpretation of the provisions in the conventions, suggesting a wide range of measures to overcome the obstacles mentioned. The division between migration law and labour law turns out to be of less importance than the ambition to make equal treatment a reality.