complain about unsafe working conditions.” In many cases, complaining about their work conditions and claiming
justice would only result in their immediate deportation.
The COVID-19 pandemic compounds this already exploitative reality. An article 6 published in June this year,
denounced new forms of abuses experienced by migrant workers in the agriculture sector: increased pressure on
daily outputs, inadequate conditions to allow for the respect of workers’ safety, no equipment distributed for
protection against contagion as well as inadequate sanitary facilities to guarantee basic hygiene in accommodation
structures. A video released by Reuters7 tells the story of Ethiopian women, migrant domestic workers, suddenly
dismissed by their employers and left on their own without any shelter, documentation and, in some instances,
without due payment for the services rendered. An equally recent podcast on data collection on COVID-19,8
denounces the segregation of non-key migrant workers in guarded, densely populated dormitories in Asia. Physically
separated from the rest of society and forced to remain in the same space, migrant workers are left effectively
unable to protect themselves against the risk of contagion.
A 2017 Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD) report, looks into the costs borne
by migrant workers. Whilst, up until now, the main discourse on migration costs, has been mostly revolving around
monetary aspects (e.g. recruitment fees9, relocation costs, costs of remittances), KNOMAD discusses the problem of
the non-monetary price that migrant workers pay, as a result of abysmal working conditions at their employment
destination. Non-monetary costs include denied access to health and social protection systems, poor work-life
balance, work-related injuries (including stress and fatigue), long-term illnesses,10 and the psychological impact of
the migration experience. Despite being largely disregarded in the general assessment of the costs of migration,
these elements represent a fundamental component in the overall return on the migration investment11 and
influence the success of the relationship between migration and development, 12 along with implications for the
realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As the KNOMAD report suggests “much of these [non-monetary] costs are unknown in advance, and revealed only
at destination […] and that failure to account for the costs of migration linked to the conditions of work raises issues
of accuracy of migration decisions, false hopes, and efficiency losses in general.” 13 These costs may lead to earlier
dismissals or physical incapacity to continue to perform employment services, with consequent inability to earn
enough to support oneself and send remittances back home to support one’s family: “[h]igher costs due to poor
conditions of work are strongly and significantly negatively correlated with the amount of remittances, in absolute
and relative terms, as well as the duration of migration.” 14 This also means missed opportunities for further
6
Grant, H., Women picking fruit for UK supermarkets 'facing new forms of exploitation' (The Guardian, 03 June 2020)
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/jun/03/women-picking-fruit-for-uk-supermarkets-facing-new-formsof-exploitation
7
https://uk.reuters.com/video/watch/i-am-not-garbage-ethiopian-workers-left-idOVCHNNG4Z
See
also
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-lebanon-workers-tr/lebanons-coronavirus-lockdown-leaves-migrantwomen-penniless-and-stranded-idUSKBN21Y2Q2
8 https://megdavisconsulting.com/2020/06/14/right-on-4-uncounted-in-covid19-data/
9 Migration Data Portal, Migrant recruitment costs, (9 June 2020) https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/migrant-recruitmentcosts
10 See for instance Underwood, E., Unhealthy work: Why migrants are especially vulnerable to injury and death on the job,
(Knowable Magazine 18 July 2018) https://www.knowablemagazine.org/article/society/2018/unhealthy-work-why-migrants-areespecially-vulnerable-injury-and-death-job
11 The decision to migrate is often the result of a household investment decision that sees employment abroad as a survival strategy
and a strategy for risk diversification.
12 International Organisation for Migration, Migration and Sustainable Development, https://www.iom.int/migration-anddevelopment; and International Organisation for Migration, Migration and the 2030 Agenda. A guide for practitioners (2018),
http://migration4development.org/sites/default/files/en_sdg_web.pdf
13 Aleksynska M., et al., Deficiencies in Conditions of Work as a Cost to Labor Migration: Concepts, Extent, and Implications (Global
Knowledge
Partnership
on
Migration
and
Development
August
2017)
Working
paper,
no.
28
https://www.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2017-08/WP_Deficiencies%20in%20Conditions%20of%20Work%20%208-152017.pdf
14 Ibid.
2