At the end of January...
This is the first in what we hope will become a series in 2021 where we share information and opinions on some of the previous month's events that are relevant to GAATW members and partners.
Bandana Pattanaik
The first month of 2021 has ended and what a month has it been! The pandemic still keeps us under its control and many countries are dealing with a ‘second wave’ now. However, those of us fortunate to have our jobs, have also learnt to adapt to working from home and communicating remotely with colleagues, friends and sometimes with family too. In terms of in-person meetings, community interaction, international conferences and large meetings, this year is not looking very different from the last.
‘Vaccine Nationalism’ does not (even) make economic sense
Vaccination programmes have started in many countries but the competition and hoarding that we witness is worrying. Covax, the pooled procurement scheme, has been set up and many wealthy countries have signed up to support it but they have also placed their own direct orders with the pharmaceutical companies which has effectively pushed Covax towards the end of the queue. International cooperation on vaccine distribution is necessary for everyone’s safety and global economic recovery. According to recent research, ‘it would cost $25 billion to supply lower income countries with vaccines. The US, the UK, the EU and other high-income countries combined could lose about $119 billion a year if the poorest countries are denied a supply. If these high-income countries paid for the supply of vaccines, there could be a benefit-to-cost ratio of 4.8 to 1. For every $1 spent, high-income countries would get back about $4.8.’
An unsmooth transfer of power in the US
History tells us that transfer of power is often uneasy and the United States had witnessed bumpy White House transitions before. The events of 6 January 2021, however, went far beyond the awkward or rude. The world watched in horror as mob supporters of Donald Trump stormed into the United States Capitol and vandalised it. Countries affected by the US sanctions in the name of defending democracy were the first ones to react with bitterness. The events at the Capitol, wrote Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa, ‘showed that the US has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy.’ The government of Venezuela commented that the United States now experiences ‘what it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression’.
A tense two weeks and a second impeachment of Trump later, Joe Biden assumed office as the 46th President of the United States. Along with our friends in the US, we heaved a sigh of relief and feel cautiously optimistic. By making the pandemic his most immediate priority, Biden has done what any responsible leader would do and what Trump was refusing to deal with. Some of his steps at the international level are welcome too. The US has now rejoined the Paris Agreement and Biden’s climate goals include 100% clean energy by 2035, vastly expanding wind and solar to get the nation to net-zero emissions by 2050. The global gag rule, a harmful policy that banned US funding for overseas aid organisations who facilitate or promote abortion, has been scrapped. Health activists in the US will resume lobbying for its permanent repeal. The new administration also has started rolling back Trump’s immigration policies; the construction of the border wall is frozen, the policy to separate migrant families crossing the border revoked and an eight-year pathway to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented immigrants currently in the country is being discussed. In a welcome move, Daniel McNicholas of the United States Permanent Mission to the United Nations in Geneva also re-established engagement with the Global Forum on Migration and Development and stated that it is time to demonstrate that his country ‘values humane, orderly, and fair migration policies’. As we all know, the US had withdrawn from all international fora related to migration in 2017.
Overall, there is no doubt that a seasoned politician like Biden will do all he can to reassert the US’ commitment to internationalism and be more measured in his statements. However, this is also the moment when we need to understand the current global scenario. Trump is gone but are we seeing the end of Trumpism? Will the elected authoritarian and populist leaders in Brazil, the Philippines, Turkey, Hungary, Poland and India, among others, draw any lesson from the recent happenings in the US? And most importantly, what can we in the global south expect from Biden? Will he let go of the myth of US exceptionalism and deal with the emerging multipolar world?
For some deliberations on the above questions, you might like to read
Twilight: The Erosion of US Control and the Multipolar Future
Trump Is Gone, Trumpism Lives On and
After Trump: What the Global South can expect from Joe Biden
Building Back Better
The 13th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Summit was held online on 18 - 26 January 2021. Unlike other years, all sessions were open to all delegates, a move that was applauded by CSOs. CSOs had held their preparatory meetings on 7-15 January and prepared advocacy priorities.
The four thematic areas of GFMD-2020 were Governance of Labor Migration, and Skilling of Migrants, Addressing Gaps in Migrant Protection, Irregular Migration and COVID-19: Building Back Better for Migrants. Closely linked to the themes, the advocacy priorities put forward by CSOs were
- Ensuring social protection for migrants regardless of their status;
- Expanding migrants’ regularisation and legal migration pathways;
- Fighting xenophobia and discrimination; and
- Promoting safe access to services and to the judicial system.
Key discussion points of all sessions can be found on the GFMD Civil Society website. The discussion on Approaches to Preventing Irregular Migration and the thematic background paper might be of interest to colleagues working with undocumented workers. The informal networking sessions between government delegates and CSOs conducted under Chatham House Rules saw consensus on a ‘whole-of-society’ approach and rights based approaches to assistance and recovery.
France is the proposed chair of GFMD during 2022-23 and Ambassador Pascal Teixeira da Silva of the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has suggested co-chairing it with a sub-Saharan state. Impact of climate change on migration and development would be a key priority topic for the GFMD going forward.
Commitments and goodwill at GFMD notwithstanding, we know that this crisis has made the deplorable living and working conditions of millions of workers (many of whom are migrants – internal or cross-border) visible to everyone. Some states have come up with temporary measures such as visa-extension, and labour law relaxation. Equally, some states have also extended working hours at no overtime pay and wage theft is widely reported. Response from general public in countries of destination have been mixed – kindness, concern, emergency support as well as xenophobia and migrant blaming. Clearly, we have much to do, if we really want to build back better.
Breaking News
My reflection on the last month must mention the disturbing news from Myanmar that has reached us this morning. Myanmar’s military has arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other political in the early hours today and declared a state of emergency for a year. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, won 83% of available seats in the 8 November 2020 but the military disputed the results. Fears of this coup was already in the air over the last several weeks. If you’re interested in learning more, you can sign up to see this press conference tomorrow (2 February) at 10:30 am Bangkok time.
We condemn the military coup and hope that there will not be any violence affecting people in the country.