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The Mangere refugee centre. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images
The Mangere refugee centre. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images

PoliticsDecember 11, 2018

The real reasons we oppose the UN Global Compact on Migration

The Mangere refugee centre. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images
The Mangere refugee centre. Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images

It is absurd to cast the National Party as appealing to an anti-immigration sentiment – the UN compact is riddled with problems that are ill-suited to New Zealand shaping sensible policy, writes foreign affairs spokesperson Todd McClay.

Yesterday from New York Sam Bookman wrote for the Spinoff defending the United Nations Global Compact on Migration. He should be applauded for putting forward his case, even if we disagree – that’s freedom of the press at its best.

The current Labour-New Zealand First Government has been unable to confirm their stance even as delegates gather in Morocco as we speak. Indeed, following the concerns that have been raised over the agreement, the prime minister has just announced that the government is seeking even more advice on the agreement – an agreement that advice to Winston Peters set the negotiating parameters for as early as March this year.  Let me be clear, this Labour-New Zealand First government have been negotiating this UN migration agreement for almost all of 2018.

We’re absolutely clear on our stance. Last week, we announced our opposition to the Compact on Migration. The motivation for this was simple, having read and considered it we did not believe it was an agreement that helped New Zealand.

Signing up to United Nations protocols (whether they be a declaration, agreement or compact) is a serious decision that affects our country, we should not do so lightly and, in this case, we don’t think we should do it at all.

Fundamentally, countries should only sign up to agreements when they are committed to putting in place the terms of the document they are signing. If they don’t follow through those governments will not only lose face internationally, but they very well may find that our own courts are more willing to uphold the commitments we sign than they are.

As a matter of principle, National does not believe that migration policy should be governed through a United Nations framework. Migration is solely a matter for sovereign states. Each country must respond dynamically to the circumstances it finds itself in. The highly circumstantial nature of migration makes it a difficult policy area to apply a global framework to, outside of the basic tenants of human rights. For that reason alone we felt justified in our position to oppose this agreement, though as I will outline here, we have more specific concerns with this agreement as well.

To get one matter out of the way quickly, I reject what Sam Bookman claims in his article, that this is an example of pandering to an anti-immigration worldview. Kiwis have a good basis to consider ourselves good global citizens, as Bookman himself states. That is especially true when it comes to immigration. New Zealand has an excellent immigration system, we encourage talent to move to our country and welcome people who choose to come here to call our country home. National remains committed to that principle.

National is not, and will not be, the party that goes to an election calling for dramatic reductions of migrants or calling for discriminatory policies of banning people from housing markets based on the sound of their name.

To be successful New Zealand needs to be outward looking and our immigration system helps us do this. But this agreement does not make us a better global citizen or create better migration policies. At best the document is a non-binding non-entity that will have no effect and therefore should not be signed. At worst, it will move us towards a global standard for migration that does not reflect the true circumstances countries find themselves in, and therefore should not be signed.

The Global Compact on migration outlines 23 broad principles of action, calling on countries to commit to policies that uphold these principles. As identified by Bookman, the purpose of the Compact is to ensure that “all forms of migration take place in a humane and coherent framework”. What could be wrong with that?

The first objection is that, unlike issues such as climate change, we believe that migration is not well suited to a United Nations framework. As each country has individual contexts and circumstances, it would be impossible to form principles to suit all of them and would increase the risk of  unintended consequences. For example, it is very easy for New Zealand to talk about how wonderful the world would be if we adopted our immigration policies, but we also do not face the pressures that we are seeing in countries such as Australia, the United States or Europe (all areas which the opposition to this Compact are emerging from).

There are also issues that emerge in this document about the failure to distinguish between illegal and legal migration, specifics around what looks likely to amount to free expression limitations as well as a lack of awareness of the finely tuned immigration settings of individual countries.

For example, objective 17 of the compact calls for a commitment to eliminate discrimination towards migrants. Wonderful, what could be wrong with this? The document then explains types of policies that could be used to do this including “sensitising and educating media professionals on migration-related issues and terminology” and “stopping allocation of public funding or material support to media outlets that systematically promote intolerance”, at the same time the document says that we must respect the freedom of the media.

But restricting speech because we don’t like it and refusing support for media based on what they say is a dangerous experiment in the limitations of basic rights. As a member of the National Party, I will regularly read or watch media that I don’t like, disagree with or feel is intolerant towards me and my party’s views and beliefs. My response is to write a column to the Spinoff, not call for the defunding or re-education of media. This is part of the problem, the commitments the document calls for do not match the specific policy settings and values of individual countries.

These are actually all concerns that the current government has also noted. The minister of immigration was reported as being concerned about the potential free expression limitations and requiring the provision of proof of identity papers (likely in the form of a national ID scheme).

The concerns of countries who oppose this deal, and the National Party, come down to how influential this document may be on the domestic policy settings in countries like New Zealand. Now, the proponents of this document and our minister of foreign affairs, Winston Peters have all pointed out that the text is non-binding and indeed affirms national sovereignty.

So what’s the problem? Let’s take this argument at its best. If the compact is simply worth nothing in terms of legal force, why should we engage in it when we don’t believe it recognises the real way immigration affects countries? The reason that countries such as Australia, the United States and European countries are rejecting this deal is that these are often the countries who have been required to face the largest pressures when it comes to migration. Their objection is that the agreement does not provide relief for them and, if anything, calls on them to do more. The agreement simply does not reflect the way migration, especially illegal migration, currently disproportionately affects certain areas.

But the truth is that these agreements are designed in order to have an effect. We agree with Bookman here, countries are expected to uphold their commitments and courts have an obligation to assess the commitment countries make when deciding cases. Other “non-binding” United Nations documents have already been imported into our domestic law as courts rightly point out that the Government committed to acting consistently with these documents. Examples such as the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a declaration we chose to support, was meant to be simply affirming a set of principles but has already crept into the way we interpret the law in New Zealand. Similar cases have emerged across the world with such documents as well.

Finally then, what is National’s solution to the way we manage immigration on a global scale? We accept that the world is facing unprecedented pressures when it comes to migration. Countries are already being forced to work together and negotiate this area. New Zealand, for example, is making overtures to Australia to assist with their asylum numbers and Germany worked with the EU to take on a greater share of migrants following the conflict in Syria. The value of this is in countries working together identifying the specific issues being faced and working to find a solution that works.

Managing migration around the world requires a realistic view of the pressures and motivations of the specific countries involved, we can and should work together to address pressures and concerns as they arise. But establishing a global set of objectives will not help to manage migration around the world and raises problems in how it affects our own ability to set policy.

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Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

PoliticsDecember 10, 2018

Simon Bridges needs to stop pandering to the alt-right on the Global Compact

Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

National MPs have been railing against the ‘Global Compact’. Sam Bookman sets the record straight on  the United Nations agreement and what it really means for immigration.

As Kiwis, we consider ourselves pretty good global citizens. We like to believe that from our corner of the South Pacific we can play an outsized role in world affairs. As many countries swing toward nativist xenophobia, we took pride when our prime minister staked out a ground for compassion and cooperation at the United Nations earlier this year.

Against that backdrop, it seems odd that National Party leader Simon Bridges took time out of his busy week to criticise a little-known United Nations agreement, the Global Compact for Migration. The United Nations’ first ever comprehensive agreement on migration, it contains a set of principles and commitments to promote international cooperation.

In an awkward video, Bridges declared that “we should set the rules, not the United Nations”. He followed up with a press release alleging that the Global Compact was an “automatic right to migrate to another country without that country’s full agreement”.

He called on the government to join a growing number of countries – such as Australia, Hungary, and the United States – in pulling out of the Global Compact, and pledged that a future National government would do so. Todd McLay, National’s foreign affairs spokesperson, asserted that the Global Compact “treats legal and illegal immigration the same”.

The Global Compact has become a codeword for many of the alt-right’s favorite punching bags. Viktor Orbán, the far-right Hungarian prime minister, has described it as “copied from the Soros plan”, and a petition imploring the United Kingdom to follow Hungary’s lead has been signed by over 100,000 people. Breitbart has described it as a “globalist pledge”, while the Dutch politician Geert Wilders likened the agreement to opening the front door to terrorism.

It seems that Bridges’ announcement has been driven by the right flank of his party. Judith Collins pinned a tweet complaining that the agreement would give up New Zealand’s geographical “advantage” in receiving fewer migrants than other countries. And the socially conservative duo Simeon Brown and Chris Penk recorded a video in front of a portrait of the Queen, which echoed the Trump administration’s language by clearly emphasising the mantra of “sovereignty”. At best, National seems to drive a wedge between liberal Labour and populist New Zealand First: at worst, it’s making a fearmongering appeal to xenophobes and racists.

In case you didn’t understand the concept of sovereignty: Simeon Brown, Chris  Penk, and The Queen.

Bridges’ assertion is bare-faced nonsense. Nowhere in the text does the Global Compact create a right for people to migrate wherever they want. Instead, the Global Compact declares the opposite, affirming the sovereign right of states to set their own immigration policies. “States may distinguish between regular and irregular migration status … taking into account different national realities, policies, priorities and requirements for entry”. In other words, how New Zealand’s immigration system currently works.

That starting point of sovereignty in the Global Compact is followed by a number of commitments that fall under “objectives”. These objectives are designed to ensure that all forms of migration take place in a humane and coherent framework. For example, states agree to take steps to address the underlying causes of migration, ensure that regular migration systems are accessible and flexible, and that all migrants have access to human rights protection and basic services (such as schools).

None of the commitments are legally binding. However (as Bridges correctly observes), if countries uphold their commitments, over time it is possible that they could enter into international law.

Of course, that invites an important question: If New Zealand already substantially complies with most of the Global Compact’s commitments, which aren’t binding anyway, what’s the case for signing on? The answer to that is in the agreement’s title. Migration is a truly global phenomenon. New Zealand can’t close its eyes and its borders to the rest of the world and hope for the best. 258 million people live outside their country of birth, including 21 million refugees. That number is growing.

Despite these staggering numbers, there is no single international framework for the management of migration. International refugee law is hopelessly out of date. The lack of coherence exacerbates the kind of chaos and suffering arising from the Syrian and Venezuelan crises, and the cruel treatment of asylum-seekers in Australia and the United States. The Global Compact is not perfect and will not solve all these problems, but it does create a framework for international solutions.

The choice isn’t between open and closed borders: it’s between global cooperation and global chaos. Consider the future impact of climate change. Even in the best case scenarios, tens of millions of people will be forced from their homes in South Asia, Central Africa, and the Pacific by rising sea levels and desertification. Just this week, the Minister of Defence identified climate change as a leading threat to New Zealand’s own national security. The Global Compact is a starting point toward collaborative solutions. As it states, “no State can address migration on its own due to the inherently transnational nature of the phenomenon. It requires international, regional and bilateral cooperation and dialogue”.

Bridges can’t claim to be “supportive of global action on major issues and migration”, and simultaneously exploit populist rhetoric to undermine New Zealand’s role in international cooperation. If Bridges isn’t happy with the Global Compact, instead of taking his foreign policy cues from Breitbart, he should be offering a viable alternative.

Sam Bookman is a former New Zealand lawyer based in New York and a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School

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