/IOM

The IOM (initials for International Organization for Migration) as stated in it webpage (2010) “is the leading inter-governmental organization in the field of migration and works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners [...] currently it has 127 members and it works in:
• Migration and development
• Facilitating migration
• Regulating migration
• Forced migration.”
After this short explanation of the IOM we can focus on the aspect that concern us in the blog task of this week, what are the International Organization for Migration is taking for improving the conditions for women migrant workers.
This women are mainly head of family, and have low wage jobs, a big percentage of the women that the IOM works with are illegal immigrants, which worsens their conditions in the host country, and the situation in their home countries are not stable enough for them to come back, so they rather stay as second class citizens, with lower wages than the required minimum (since they are illegal and cannot ask for the same conditions as a legal resident) than to go back to their home country, where maybe the disemployment, insecurity and instability rates are higher. Another common characteristic in migrants is the flow of remittances, so they not only maintain themselves and their close ones in the host country, but also they maintain some of their family circle back at home with those remittances, in the Colombian case those are so important that they account for the double of the coffee exports.
The IOM helps migrant of all kind, but in this case we are focusing on women, some of the main actions and programs are oriented toward migrant rights, health and quantifying the migration flows. One special case is in Bangladesh, where the IOM is training women in some basic work skills so they can have the opportunity to get a decent job and avoid prostitution, or other illegal actions; as Rabab Fatima (IOM Regional Representative for South Asia) says: “This kind of training to improve social and professional skills, and provide internationally acceptable certification, will improve the marketability of Bangladeshi migrant workers abroad – particularly women”
We can note that the main task that the IOM is currently doing is trying to improve the conditions of migrants, or future migrants. They only quantify and provide guarantees but does not condemn or take direct action towards illegal migrations, their main concern is trying to provide a decent quality of living in the host country.

Bibliography:
International Organization for Migration (2010) About IOM, Retrieved from: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/about-iom/lang/en
International Organization for Migration (2009) IOM Backs Training for Bangladesh’s Women Migrant Workers, Retrieved from: http://www.iom.int/jahia/Jahia/media/press-briefing-notes/pbnAS/cache/offonce?entryId=25848

Ps: in class we had a discussion, about the same topic but in a different direction, about exclusion of migrants in western Europe and in the United States, so I wanted to show a music video that, up to some extent, speaks of the exclusion of the migrants, specially in France, and how this kind of exclusion has lead to repression, anger and finally how groups of young people becoming gangs, full of anger, and committing violent acts.
The video is from the song Stress, by the French electronic duo Justice, and directed by Romain-Gavras, hopefully you will enjoy it.

Jus†ice, Stress from ROMAIN-GAVRAS on Vimeo.

- 75 (Producer) & Romain-Gavras (Director) (2008) Justice - Stress [Music Video] Available at: http://www.vimeo.com/9518258