Paper short abstract:

The capabilities approach is a productive framework for analyzing South-South migration and constructing a debate on the integration of rights, migration and development. We use this approach to discuss the Burmese diaspora, their experiences of deprivation and opportunities for South-South collaboration.

Paper long abstract:

The development potential of migration is contentious when examining South-South migration, as regulatory legislation and frameworks are often lacking, and chances for collective action are low. As such, the invisibilization of migrants' labour and subsequent (in)access to protection and rights in South-South migration occurs on a large scale. To promote human rights within South-South migration, we argue that the capabilities approach as conceptualized by Sen and Nussbaum is a productive framework for analyzing these migration flows and constructing a coherent debate among scholars and policymakers on the integration of rights, migration, and development. Recognizing the selective application of the capabilities approach in the past, we argue that an interpretation of the capabilities approach which centres the rights of migrant workers, their families, and their communities, represents an appropriate starting point for future debate on the position and value of migrant rights. Using this theoretical perspective, we discuss the experience of Burmese diaspora, who are mostly located in Thailand, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, and India. Although an important source of economic, social and political support to populations in the sending state, the extent of labour precarity, mistreatment, and abject degradation, at least in Thailand, has created an environment in which illegal migrant workers are completely disenfranchised from mobilizing politically and staking claims. Although political apathy and exclusion may result from longstanding deprivation and exploitation from the sending and receiving state, a rights-focused capabilities approach offers a theoretical grounding on the possibilities of South-South relationship-building and collaboration within the migration-development nexus.