Immigrant Workers and the Domestic Enforcement of International Labor Rights

Abstract

Globalization poses many challenges to working people and their advocates. The erosion of barriers to international trade and investment has increased the mobility of goods and capital, but restrictions on the free movement of workers have endured. As a result, there is a pressing need for upward harmonization of labor rights across borders, the further defInition of international labor standards and development of mechanisms to enforce them, and crucially, support for international and cross-border organizing initiatives. In light of the demands on the limited resources of United States unions and other labor advocates, it may seem folly to suggest an additional strategy for addressing the consequences of globalization. Yet there is a further method of advocacy, one that is relatively low-cost but could both advance the direct interests of some of the most exploited workers in this country and aid broader international labor rights initiatives: enforcement of international labor standards in the United States, particularly on behalf of immigrant workers.