Reclaiming space for workers in the 21st century

According to the ILO’s Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers (2018), in 2017, of a total of 258 million international migrants, migrant workers numbered 164 million. In 2020, the official United Nations (UN) figure of total international migrants rose to 281 million, with 48 per cent estimated to be women and girls and 73 per cent estimated to be migrant workers. The term “international migrants” includes all persons of working age who are usual residents of a country, and who are citizens of another country or whose place of birth is located in another country, while “international migrant workers” are those persons who have labour attachments in the country where they currently find themselves, irrespective of the initial purpose of their migration. They include a wide range of categories of workers, including frontier workers, seasonal workers, itinerant workers, self-employed workers, foreign domestic workers, working or workseeking refugees and asylum seekers, forcibly displaced persons and persons trafficked across international borders for forced labour or labour exploitation.