Know your rights
Labor rights of migrants
By: Geovanna Estefanía Dávalos Álvarez
As a result of the arrival of a significant flow of migrants to the city, the integration of this population into the labor market has represented important challenges.
For this reason, addressing the labor rights of migrants in the local context forces us first to recognize the precarious conditions to which they are subjected.
In this sense, it is important to point out that the concept of precariousness is closely linked to a series of factors related to employment stability, conditions, salary, and its dynamics, as well as the degree of legal protection that this entails. So, it represents one of the axes by which, unfortunately, people are excluded from welfare.
Starting from the fact that we understand labor rights those that allow workers to work in decent conditions and that can be translated promptly to that they are treated in equal circumstances, do not suffer any type of harassment or harassment, are not discriminated and to have, both with the necessary education and/or training processes and with a series of minimum conditions that guarantee their social security.
The reality of Tijuana, however, offers a series of scenarios that violate these rights in which people in an irregular migratory situation face uncovered work accidents, unjustified dismissals, and non-payment of their salaries, as daily situations.
So, it is easy to understand that access to the full exercise of the labor rights of people in a context of mobility continues to be a pending task for those who are in charge of their guarantee because, although the Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare of the state offers services related to prevention and inspection, with which they seek to pay for the process of monitoring and verifying that the laws and regulations on the matter are complied with, however, in the daily exercise of their work, they do not have the necessary tools that guarantee migrant people’s access to this series of services, because no communication work is done that attends to the reality of the migrant population. This fact prevents them from not only knowing about, but accessing this type of service and, consequently, from remaining in conditions that perpetuate their degree of vulnerability in labor matters.
Therefore, to be in a position to address the problem of job insecurity for migrants, it is necessary to recognize its causes and consequences to be in a position to design policies whose implementation addresses the reality of the said sector, which does not necessarily know its rights or the mechanisms available to exercise them, because let us remember that, in terms of law, the creation of a law or regulation that recognizes the right itself is not enough, so that the creation and implementation of mechanisms that guarantee its exercise becomes essential. Only in this way can their protection and full access to the exercise of their labor rights be effectively guaranteed.
