Around the world, migrants are often consigned to the least desirable jobs, denied services such as health care and access to education for their children, and in many countries are subject to physical attack and abuse, based on ethnic or racial discrimination.

And so, led by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, prominent advocates for migrants called Thursday for more countries to ratify a UN Convention designed to protect the rights of some 175 million migrants and their families, which took effect last July.

“More must be done to ensure respect for the human rights of migrant workers and their families — be they regular or irregular, documented or undocumented,” Annan said in his message issued for International Migrants Day, December 18.

“That is why I call on States to become parties to the International Convention on the Protection of all Migrant Workers and Members of their Families,” Annan added, noting that the Convention was a “vital part of efforts to combat exploitation of migrant workers and their families.”

His appeal was echoed by the U.S. National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR), and British-based Anti-Slavery International, which called on their governments to ratify the 1990 Convention. To date it has been ratified only by poor countries that tend to export migrant labour to wealthier countries.

The NNIRR stressed that the Convention was more necessary than ever before. “With the continued scapegoating and intensified law enforcement against immigrants in the U.S. ‘War on Terrorism,’” it said, “we have continued to witness the devastating effects of fear, racism and xenophobia on our immigrant and refugee communities, all in the name of national security.”

In the last year, it said, “the criminalization of immigrants has deepened as the U.S. government has entrusted immigration enforcement to the Department of Homeland Security, an agency that leaves little chance for equal protection or due process of immigrants at a time when detention and deportation have become leading strategies in the defense of national security.”

The United Nations estimates that about three per cent of the world’s population is currently living outside their country of origin. While many of these are refugees searching for safety from violence, persecution, or, in some cases, natural disaster, most are seeking better economic opportunities for themselves and their families.

The current annual flow of migrants is 2.3 million, with the largest net senders — currently and for the foreseeable future — including China, Mexico, India, the Philippines and Indonesia. The biggest net gainers over the next half century are projected to be the United States, Germany, Canada, Britain and Australia.

According to the UN, some 60 per cent of international migrants live in more developed countries, and almost one in ten people living in more developed regions is a migrant. In developing countries the ratio is just one in 70.

Countries with the largest number of migrants include the U.S., with an estimated 35 million; Russia (13 million); Germany and Ukraine (seven million each); and France (six million). At the same time, countries with the highest percentage of international migrant stock in their total population include the United Arab Emirates (74 percent); Kuwait (58 percent); Jordan (40 percent); Israel (27 percent); and Singapore (34 percent).

Because of their status, however, many migrants, suffer discrimination both in jobs that are available to them, but also in gaining access to social services for themselves and their families. In some cases, for example, migrants cannot receive certain kinds of welfare benefits or even education for their children — despite the fact that they often pay as much in taxes as citizens.

In addition, migrants take jobs that citizens of wealthier countries often refuse in key economic sectors such as agriculture, construction, high tech, and domestic services. At the same time, however, they are subject to racism, abuse and even violent attacks.

Undocumented migrants are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and even blackmail by unscrupulous employers, police and even immigration officials. This may be especially true for migrant women who often become domestic servants.

Kalayaan, a migrants-right group in Britain, found last year that about half of migrants working as domestic servants in Britain, for example, had their passports confiscated by employers, virtually trapping them in their jobs.

The Convention provides a comprehensive framework for the protection of migrants, regardless of their legal status, from discrimination and other abuses by their countries of origin, transit countries and host countries alike.

Advocates of the treaty, such as the Geneva-based “December 18,” argue that the issue of international migration is largely misunderstood, particularly in northern countries whose publics often see migrants as a never-ending source of competition for jobs and a drain on government services.

“Migration is a phenomenon, not a problem,” according to a letter signed by 290 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, and December 18, and released when the Convention took effect last July 1. “Without efforts to share wealth more evenly, migration will only increase. In this matter, no short-term and obvious solutions exist.”

In addition, more equitable treatment for migrants is essential for fighting trafficking networks that are often associated with organized crime. “The promotion of regular migration is an essential element of any counter-trafficking policy,” according to Mary Cunneen, the director of Anti-Slavery International, one of the world’s oldest NGOs.

Annan stressed that migration is an inevitable byproduct of globalization and that migrants play a key role in supporting both their adopted and home countries. Most migrants contribute greatly to their new societies, and many send back remittances to support their families — and thus the economies of their countries of origin, he noted.

At the same time, Annan expressed concern about growing fear and intolerance of migrants in many countries. “In recent years,” he said, “migrants have been vilified in certain societies, while some have been denied their rights in the name of national security.”