The Commonwealth Teachers' Group NEWSLETTER

Education International Establishes
Taskforce to Tackle Teacher
Migration and Mobility Issues
By Dennis Sinyolo, Education International
Teacher migration and mobility is a global
phenomenon that requires a concerted and
coordinated effort from the trade union movement to
curb the violation of migrant teachers’ labour rights.
Following a decision of its Executive Board in
October, Education International (EI) set up a taskforce
of union members from both sending and receiving
countries to address teacher migration and mobility
issues across the globe. To help EI stop the
exploitation of migrant teachers and promote decent
work for all education personnel, the group has been
mandated to establish a virtual network of migrant
teachers using the EI website; carry out research into
aspects of migration and mobility and facilitate
information sharing and exchange among EI member
organisations. The migrant teachers’ portal will be an
important tool for use by teachers.
The taskforce held its first meeting in Washington,
USA, from 15- 16 April. This was hosted by EI’s
affiliates in the United States, the National Education
Association (NEA) and the American Federation of
Teachers (AFT). The meeting reviewed current trends
and developments in teacher migration and mobility
and discussed the benefits that accrue to individuals
as well as sending and receiving countries as a result
of teacher migration. The taskforce also discussed the
challenges faced by migrant teachers.
The picture that emerged from country and regional
reports presented by members of the group, and
research studies conducted by EI affiliates, was that
migrant teachers, a significant number of them from
Commonwealth countries, have their labour rights
violated in many instances. Cases of abuse include
non-recognition of qualifications, resulting in many
qualified overseas-recruited teachers being paid as
unqualified teachers, while some recruitment
agencies have exploited migrant teachers by charging
them exorbitant fees and treating them as indentured
labourers.
In an address to members of the taskforce, the
leading civil rights and equalities campaigner, the
Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, called for the protection of
migrant teachers’ rights. He summed up the moral
imperative for unions to engage by stating that
“teachers’ rights are workers’ rights and workers’
rights are human rights.”
Key issues identified for follow-up and action by the
taskforce included:
● the need for research and data collection,
including the compilation of accurate countrylevel
data on the number and categories of
migrating teachers;
● investigation and documentation of the practices
of recruitment agencies in order to lobby
governments to regulate the activities of such
agencies;
● addressing the issue of non-recognition of
qualifications, particularly when teachers migrate
from developing countries to developed
countries;
● ensuring professional development, orientation
and induction programmes for migrant teachers
are instituted;
● creating a platform for migrant teachers to
share their experiences and interact with each
other;
● addressing teacher migration issues at all levels
(global, regional, national and local), including
pursuit of bilateral and multilateral arrangements
between and among countries and unions in
sending and receiving countries;
● lobbying countries to ratify international
migration instruments, including the UN
Convention on the Protection of the Rights of
All Migrant Workers and Members of Their
Families and ILO Migrant Conventions (97 and 143);
and
● collaborating with other organisations, including
UNESCO, the ILO, IOM, OECD and regional intergovernmental
organisations to promote and
defend the rights of migrant teachers.
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