Website: Labour Migration Branch (MIGRANT)

The Labour Migration Branch (MIGRANT) is the unit responsible for labour migration in the ILO, undertaking a number of activities on priority areas of labour migration. MIGRANT takes an integrated approach as concerns the key ILO means of action: the promotion of international standards, policy advice, research, technical cooperation and capacity building. All are used to reinforce each other.

Where standards are concerned, MIGRANT's work is guided in particular by the two ILO Conventions specifically addressing labour migration and the protection of migrant workers - Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No.97) and Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) - as well as their accompanying Recommendations. However, it is noteworthy that all ILO Conventions are applicable to migrant workers (unless otherwise stated in the Convention) and that, in particular, the rights defined under the 1998 ILO Declaration Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work apply to all migrants, including those in irregular situations.

The non-binding ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, which complements ILO standards related to labour migration, is used as the main tool for policy advice on formulating effective labour migration policies and setting up institutions in countries of origin and destination. However, building and disseminating knowledge on labour migration is also essential to credibly guide and support advice and services to constituents. Research therefore covers a wide range of issues, including integration, non-discrimination, and equal treatment and opportunity; youth employment and migration; global talent mobility; gender-sensitive migration policies; recruitment of migrant workers; temporary foreign workers schemes; and the internationalisation of labour markets. MIGRANT is involved in research projects with academic institutions of high standing and think tanks, such as EPFL Lausanne and the Migration Policy Institute (MPI).

Many technical cooperation projects have research components, and new data coming out of these projects, in turn, feeds into knowledge development. Technical cooperation projects are implemented in collaboration with ILO constituents as well as civil society organizations (such as migrants' associations and diaspora communities) where appropriate and most have a capacity building component. Training courses on labour migration, most recently the "Labour Migration Academy", implemented in collaboration with ITC-ILO Turin, complement the action and contribute indirectly to policy advice by offering information on standards, cutting-edge research, and on-going technical cooperation.