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Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions
While concessions to labour mobility at the international level seem off the agenda, with the General Agreements on Trades in Services essentially tabled, the past decades have produced a proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs), some of which are facilitating labour mobility specifically....
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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Institute of Development and Labour Law
2019
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| _version_ | 1867613311220056064 |
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| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle |
| author2 | Kalula, Evance |
| author_browse | Kalula, Evance Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle |
| author_facet | Kalula, Evance Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle |
| author_sort | Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle |
| collection | Thesis |
| description | While concessions to labour mobility at the international level seem off the agenda, with the General Agreements on Trades in Services essentially tabled, the past decades have produced a proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs), some of which are facilitating labour mobility specifically. In this paper, the author first conducts a comparative overview of RTAs that have a form of labour mobility programmes: namely, ECOWAS, ASEAN, the European Union, NAFTA, CARICOM and MERCOSUR. Building on an overview of the regulatory frameworks, institutions and legal instruments of these RTAs, the author seeks to find if patterns or lessons to be learned emerge that are relevant from a global perspective and to enhance the legal architecture of international labour mobility. The findings show positive outcomes, with some RTAs generating trade benefits and even moving forward with a common passport based on the newly shared regional identity, and at times even creating dispute settlement and legal systems for regional litigious matters. On the other hand, this exercise also points to various problems such as the poor implementation of the labour mobility provisions, to overly strict restrictions based on skill and to difficulty securing documents to benefit from the labour mobility programmes - in some of the agreements. In the second part, the author discusses these challenges faced in these regional systems. She notes that prioritising skilled as opposed to low-skilled workers has not yielded a comparative advantage and may also be fostering irregular movements. She also highlights that trade liabilities emerge from the association of countries with similar levels of development and that it accentuates the North-South paradigm. These problems disrupt access to the benefits of the programmes, which ultimately creates irregular migrations and uneven labour standards for migrant workers. Finally, the author finds that most RTAs reviewed are developing their own legal frameworks with limited interest for the international instruments available, which are at best a source of inspiration. In the third part, the author invites the reader to challenge many preconceived ideas on international mobility emerging from the first two sections, and shares her thoughts on ways forward to build an international framework, based on existing scholarly work and considering the unpopularity of the GATS. She concludes with a discussion on ‘new regionalism’ as an alternative until a shared international framework to facilitate migrations is set up, with the possibility of a merger between RTAs from the North and the South. This, she argues, could possibly unleash the full benefits of labour mobility such as increased GDPs, poverty reduction and tackling irregular migrations; benefits that have not been entirely felt to date. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29712 |
| institution | University of Cape Town (South Africa) |
| language | eng |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:34:06.076Z |
| license_str | Not specified — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publishDateRange | 2019 |
| publishDateSort | 2019 |
| publisher | Institute of Development and Labour Law |
| publisherStr | Institute of Development and Labour Law |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository |
| spelling | oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29712 Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle Kalula, Evance migration, labour mobility, international law, GATS, trade, regional trade agreements, new regional While concessions to labour mobility at the international level seem off the agenda, with the General Agreements on Trades in Services essentially tabled, the past decades have produced a proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs), some of which are facilitating labour mobility specifically. In this paper, the author first conducts a comparative overview of RTAs that have a form of labour mobility programmes: namely, ECOWAS, ASEAN, the European Union, NAFTA, CARICOM and MERCOSUR. Building on an overview of the regulatory frameworks, institutions and legal instruments of these RTAs, the author seeks to find if patterns or lessons to be learned emerge that are relevant from a global perspective and to enhance the legal architecture of international labour mobility. The findings show positive outcomes, with some RTAs generating trade benefits and even moving forward with a common passport based on the newly shared regional identity, and at times even creating dispute settlement and legal systems for regional litigious matters. On the other hand, this exercise also points to various problems such as the poor implementation of the labour mobility provisions, to overly strict restrictions based on skill and to difficulty securing documents to benefit from the labour mobility programmes - in some of the agreements. In the second part, the author discusses these challenges faced in these regional systems. She notes that prioritising skilled as opposed to low-skilled workers has not yielded a comparative advantage and may also be fostering irregular movements. She also highlights that trade liabilities emerge from the association of countries with similar levels of development and that it accentuates the North-South paradigm. These problems disrupt access to the benefits of the programmes, which ultimately creates irregular migrations and uneven labour standards for migrant workers. Finally, the author finds that most RTAs reviewed are developing their own legal frameworks with limited interest for the international instruments available, which are at best a source of inspiration. In the third part, the author invites the reader to challenge many preconceived ideas on international mobility emerging from the first two sections, and shares her thoughts on ways forward to build an international framework, based on existing scholarly work and considering the unpopularity of the GATS. She concludes with a discussion on ‘new regionalism’ as an alternative until a shared international framework to facilitate migrations is set up, with the possibility of a merger between RTAs from the North and the South. This, she argues, could possibly unleash the full benefits of labour mobility such as increased GDPs, poverty reduction and tackling irregular migrations; benefits that have not been entirely felt to date. 2019-02-22T07:21:15Z 2019-02-22T07:21:15Z 2018 2019-02-22T06:47:02Z Master Thesis Masters LLM http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29712 eng application/pdf Institute of Development and Labour Law Faculty of Law University of Cape Town |
| spellingShingle | migration, labour mobility, international law, GATS, trade, regional trade agreements, new regional Sauriol-Nadeau, Isabelle Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| thesis_degree_str | Master's |
| title | Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| title_full | Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| title_fullStr | Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| title_short | Building or stumbling, blocks anyhow: a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| title_sort | building or stumbling blocks anyhow a comparative approach of regional labour mobility frameworks towards global solutions |
| topic | migration, labour mobility, international law, GATS, trade, regional trade agreements, new regional |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29712 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sauriolnadeauisabelle buildingorstumblingblocksanyhowacomparativeapproachofregionallabourmobilityframeworkstowardsglobalsolutions |