IMMIGRANT (AND REFUGEE) RIGHTS AS HUMAN RIGHTS

One way to look at the problem  “Even though the Bill of Rights does not grant foreigners a right of entry into the United States, it does prohibit discrimination based on race and national origin against citizens and noncitizens alike.”  “We recognize that our country, like all sovereign nations, has the right to control its borders. But we also believe that the government should treat all people according to constitutional standards of fairness.” American Civil Liberties Union of Florida

Another way to look at the problem  “Arpaio and the county attorney (…) have settled on a novel interpretation of a state law against smuggling. The law’s target is, of course, smugglers, known as coyotes but Arpaio and Thomas charged undocumented immigrants, the coyote’s cargo, as “co-conspirators’ in their own smuggling. This is a class 4 felony, which make the suspects ineligible for bond (…).” Finnegan, William, “Sheriff Joe” p. 9

Yet another way to look at it  “We become aware of a right to have rights (and that mean to live in a framework where one is judged by one’s actions and opinions) and a right to belong to some kind of organized community, only when millions of people emerge who had lost and could not regain these rights because of the new global political situation.” Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1968, p. 177

A few immigrant rights organizations  National Network for Immigrant and Refugees Rights  American Civil Liberties Union  Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles  Amnesty International USA  National Coalition for Immigrant Women’s Rights (NCIWR)

Globalization, the State, and Human Rights J. Donnelly, International Human Rights, p  What is globalization?  Globalizing spread of ideas of practices of electoral democracy and individual Human Rights  Globalizing spread of transnational logic of capital accumulation  Localization (as a reaction to globalization that becomes part of it): local and regional autonomy

 Transnational human rights advocacy  Spread of human rights ideas  But there is a darker side: - Transnational criminal enterprises - Mercenaries - Private security services => Globalization threatens “bad” and “good” states

The Welfare State, Globalization and Human Rights The state envisioned by contemporary International Human Rights Norms:  Liberal state: legitimate because it protects the human rights of its citizens  Democratic state: committed to universal political participation, recognizing the power of “the people” within the limits of Human Rights of all  Welfare state: economic and social obligations to all citizens

 The Welfare state is under assault from economic globalization  Globalization shifted the balance of power towards businesses and away from workers and states.  Without a welfare state there is no necessary connection between market and growth, development and the enjoyment of social and economic rights

Welfare state and enjoyment of social and economic rights  Welfare state guaranteed all individuals certain economic and social goods, services and opportunities irrespective of the market value of their labor. [note: everyone or all does not mean each and every individual but the average individual, an abstract entity]  Markets are justified by utilitarian political theory (argument of collective good and aggregate benefit, not individual rights)  Only when market are embedded in a welfare state does a market-based economy “merit our respect”

“Market democracy” and American Foreign Policy  “Market democracy”: a powerful convergence of market, human rights ideas and political power.  Democracy is a “good thing’ but it’s not the same good thing as human rights.  Democracy can be substantive democracy (of the people for the people) or procedural democracy (of the people by the people)  A procedural democracy government may still systematically violate Human Rights

Democracy and Human Rights  Democracy answers the question “who” should rule, Human Rights address “how” government should rule.  3 levels of political progress toward respect for internationally recognized Human Rights a- Liberalization: Decrease in Human rights violations + opening political space for previously excluded group (South Korea, China, Poland in the 1980’s) b- Democratization: establishing electoral democracy c- Rights protective regime: Liberal democracy (deepening of democracy