Getting ahead: Social mobility, public housing, and immigrant networks

Abstract

sequence. The book helps the reader to understand some notions of transnationalism through the lens of migration, though the book does not claim to do so. The editors make an appeal through their book and advocate that both sending and destination countries should recognize migrant workers as significant economic players and hence their socio, political and work rights should be protected. The book shows that the few protection mechanisms in place for workers abroad are weak, do not function and fail in their due implementation. I suggest that the authors of this book could add a chapter, focusing on why and how to reduce migrant worker fatalities as an urgent and nonnegotiable policy issue. Examples from other human rights campaigns, national and international advocacy, monitoring, lobbying, worker awareness and unionism if provided would be useful for readers who would like to be involved in migrant rights activism. I also see the need for creating consumer pressure on industries and the multinational brands of rich countries to avoid the worst forms of labor. This could be one way to deal with this complex issue. Poor implementation of policies, weak legal regimes, unbalanced foreign policy, inefficient and corrupt officials employed in foreign missions, watery bilateral agreements, non-implementation of human rights treaties and conventions and, most importantly, the poverty of sending countries have contributed to unsafe migration causing increasing numbers of worker fatalities and economic losses in South Asia. The book does not explicitly highlight the role for transnational social workers as it aimed to reach out to diverse actors of the migration sector. I strongly feel that South Asian social work should intervene, as a human rights profession armed with transnational practice avenues to bring positive changes to lives of migrant workers and their families in South Asia.