The Price of Rights

Acknowledgments vii Abbreviations xi Chapter 1 The Rights of Migrant Workers: Reframing the Debate 1 Aims and Approach of the Book 2 Outline of the Chapters and Main Arguments 4 Terminology and Scope of This Book 10 Chapter 2 The Human Rights of Migrant Workers: Why Do So Few Countries Care? 13 International Migrant Rights Conventions 13 Ratification: Record and Obstacles 16 Effectiveness 22 Migrant Rights, Citizenship Rights, and Immigration Policy 23 Chapter 3 Nation-States, Labor Immigration, and Migrant Rights: What Can We Expect? 26 The Objectives of Labor Immigration Policy 26 Constraints and Variations in the Migration State 33 Three Hypotheses 39 Chapter 4 An Empirical Analysis of Labor Immigration Programs in Forty-Six Countries 53 Existing Research and the Scope of My Analysis 53 Indicators for Measuring Openness to Labor Immigration 59 Indicators for Measuring Migrant Rights 65 Methods, Data, and Limitations 71 Openness to Labor Immigration 74 Migrant Rights 80 Summary of Findings 87 Chapter 5 Regulating the Admission and Rights of Migrant Workers: Policy Rationales in High-Income Countries 91 Explaining Greater Openness to Higher-Skilled Migrant Workers 91 Why More Rights for Skilled Migrant Workers? 104 Explaining Trade-Offs between Openness and Rights 111 The National Interest: Expected Impacts Drive Labor Immigration Policies 120 Chapter 6 Labor Emigration and Rights Abroad: The Perspectives of Migrants and Their Countries of Origin 122 Migrants: Emigration, Rights, and Human Development 122 Sending Countries: Interests and Policy Choices 134 Engaging with Trade-Offs 152 Chapter 7 The Ethics of Labor Immigration Policy 154 What Consequences Should National Policymakers Care about, and for Whom? 156 The Ethics of Temporary Labor Immigration Programs 166 What Rights Restrictions Are Justifiable, and for How Long? 172 Making Temporary Migration Programs Work 178 Summary: The Case for Tolerating Some Trade-Offs between Openness and Rights 185

Martin Ruhs is associate professor of political economy at the University of Oxford, where he is also director of studies in economics at the Department for Continuing Education.

"To what extent should countries encourage immigration? What rights should be conferred on immigrants, especially temporary ones? Ruhs emphasizes the uncomfortable tradeoffs built into every answer to those questions." - Richard Cooper, Foreign Affairs