The new Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) – a UN agreement adopted by 164 countries in December 2018 – aims to promote more effective international cooperation on international migration and enhance the protection of migrants, including migrant workers. The Compact is not legally binding, but it urges governments to adopt and implement its principles, objectives, and policy commitments.

While it is important to set out goals and aspirations for better governance of global labour migration, the GCM suffers from a profound lack of ‘labour market realism’, especially in its recommendations on labour migration. There are large gaps between the GCM’s labour migration policy recommendations and the current labour market policies and realities in the countries that host most of the world’s migrant workers. These gaps will limit the agreement’s impacts and effectiveness to improve protections for migrant workers.

One example of how the agreement pays insufficient attention to  migrant labour market realities can be found in GCM goal 5, which calls on governments to develop pathways for regular migration that reflect ‘demographic and global labour market realities’ and to implement labour mobility schemes for ‘temporary, seasonal, circular, and fast-track programmes in areas of labour shortages.’

This is a part of the blog post by Martin Ruhs (Migration Policy Centre) and Philip Martin (UC Davis).