Conceptualizing vulnerability

The concept of vulnerability is based on the premise that some people are more susceptible to harm, relative to others, as a result of exposure to one or more forms of risk. There are a number of types of harm that people can be exposed to, including psychological, physical, and environmental.

Glossary
Vulnerable migrants

persons who are unable effectively to enjoy their human rights, are at increased risk of violations and abuse and who, accordingly, are entitled to call on a duty bearer’s heightened duty of care. 

Source

OHCHR, 2017

This is a broad definition of vulnerable migrants. This chapter will focus on migrant vulnerability to violence, exploitation and abuse.

Glossary
migrant vulnerable to violence, exploitation, or abuse

a migrant … exposed to or with experience of violence, exploitation or abuse within a migration context and with limited capability to avoid, resist, cope or recover, as a result of the unique interaction of individual, household/family, community and structural characteristics and conditions.

The approach to addressing migrant vulnerability must be rooted in the belief that the human rights of all persons, including migrants, should be upheld and promoted, and that all migrants who are vulnerable – regardless of their membership in any particular category or of whether they hold any particular immigration status – should be afforded the protection and assistance that they require. 

Example
Populations considered more likely to become vulnerable

Populations that are considered more likely to become vulnerable migrants include, but are not limited to:

  • Unaccompanied migrant children;
  • Indigenous migrants;
  • Victims of violence and crimes during the migratory transit;
  • Migrant women (especially pregnant women and survivors of gender-based violence);
  • LGBTI migrants;
  • Migrant victims of smuggling and abuse;
  • Persons with international protection needs (such as refugees and asylum seekers);
  • Victims of trafficking (trafficked persons);
  • Persons living with disabilities;
  • Older persons;
  • Members of ethnic and religious minorities;
  • People who face a range of life-threatening situations in their home countries, such as communal, electoral, gang, cartel and terrorist violence; nuclear accidents; epidemics and pandemics; or disasters.
Source

 IOM, 2018a; IOM, 2019.

Vulnerability is broader than the risk of persecution or refoulement, and it is important to identify situations of vulnerability so as to inform effective responses at the individual, household/family, community and structural level.

Determinants of migrant vulnerability

When scholars and policymakers have tried to address migrant vulnerability, they have usually focused on the individual migrant’s membership in a particular category – such as being an irregular migrant or trafficked person – or on a single characteristic, such as their age or gender. However, this approach misses many critical factors at multiple levels.

IOM developed the Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability Model to provide policymakers and service providers with a tool to quickly identify coexisting and potentially interacting layers of vulnerability and resilience in vulnerable migrants, and to develop appropriate policy responses and tailored support services.

The presence of one or more risk factors does not necessarily mean that a migrant is vulnerable, because protective factors may mitigate those risk factors. Instead, the model allows policymakers and service providers to determine whether a migrant is vulnerable or not on the basis of an overall balance between risk factors and inadequate protective factors.

The Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability Model does not aim to define strict categories of factors. Instead, its goal is to help policymakers and service providers make a structured and meaningful examination of how multiple factors intersect to influence vulnerability and resilience.

The IOM Protection and Assistance Framework to Vulnerable Migrants aims to provide immediate, medium-term and long-term solutions. It can be applied before, during and after migration. It contains tools to help practitioners put the framework into action.

Image / Video
Figure 1. Programmatic responses and relevant players at each level
Source

IOM, 2019.

Case Study
Interaction of risk factors and protective factors

Example 1: Individual risk and protective factors

A middle-aged man with a high level of education, enjoying good health and belonging to a powerful segment of society would typically have a low level of vulnerability. However, he could find himself vulnerable to extortion and violence if he were to engage in unsafe migration practices, such as hiring migrant smugglers to help him gain access to a country through irregular means, particularly if he were to travel with the smugglers through countries with no mechanisms to protect smuggled migrants from violence.

Example 2: Family risk and protective factors

A family that experiences a crisis such as the primary wage earner’s loss of employment due to a health emergency might make migration decisions that heighten the vulnerability of one or more family members to labour exploitation. However, it would be less likely to make such decisions if it could turn for support to extended family members, community members, or social welfare programmes. The household/family risk factors would be mitigated by protective factors at the community level.

Example 3: Community risk and protective factors

Community risk factors could include practices such as child marriage, the exclusion of some community members from the full benefit of community resources, or risk of natural disasters. Protective community factors could include a good education system accessible to all, sufficient access to quality health care, a functioning social welfare system, or adequate preparedness measures to mitigate risks from natural hazards.

Example 4: Structural risk and protective factors

At the structural level, risk factors include patterns of systemic marginalization and discrimination, conflict and instability, poor governance, lack of accountability mechanisms and weak rule of law. Protective factors include peace and security, good governance, respect for human rights and equitable development.

For example, the availability of qualified health-care practitioners and sufficiently equipped health-care facilities can be a structural vulnerability factor. Some vulnerable migrants may not have had access to a health-care system or there might have been limitations on what that system could provide due to lack of funding and investment. The existing health-care system may not offer services appropriate or accessible to migrants, or may not be able to address unique health-care concerns that migrants may have.

The identification of vulnerable migrants is the first step in the referral mechanism. A wide array of stakeholders can identify vulnerable migrants, including the government, non-governmental organizations and international organizations, communities, or the private sector.

Policy Approaches
Identification of vulnerable migrants
  • Support and improve the capacity of immigration, consular and police officers to identify vulnerable migrants.
  • Cooperate with non-governmental organizations and international organizations that do the bulk of the identification, as they have specific programmes for vulnerable migrants or identify vulnerable migrants through their work with other vulnerable individuals.
  • Organize community-based identification through committees created for the purpose of identifying migrants vulnerable to violence, exploitation, or abuse.
  • Set up guidelines for the private sector to promote the identification of exploitative practices in their operations or supply chains, especially in high-risk sectors such as agriculture and fishing, construction, or manufacturing.
Policy Approaches
Creating and using referral pathways
  • Create referral pathways between different systems, including both protection and assistance services, to link individuals with protection-related services and support.
  • Prioritize referral mechanisms that allow for the highest level of protection.
  • Use referral pathways to offer assistance alongside protection. This may include shelter and accommodation, water, sanitation, and hygiene, food and nutrition, safety and security, health care, education and training, and livelihood, employment and income generation (for more information on referral pathways, see Case management for migrant protection and assistance, elsewhere in this chapter).
  • Where possible, ensure that referral pathways exist in relation to national referral mechanisms that provide protection and assistance to children and families in vulnerable situations, survivors of gender-based violence, refugees and asylum seekers, and victims of trafficking.
  • Prioritize existing pathways, where possible
To Go Further
Vulnerabilities throughout the migratory cycle

Vulnerabilities may arise each specific stage of the migration process. They result from many factors, including the reasons for leaving the country of origin. These vulnerabilities “can include poverty, discrimination, lack of access to fundamental human rights, including education, health, food and water, and decent work, as well as xenophobia, violence, gender inequality, the wide-ranging consequences of natural disaster, climate change and environmental degradation, and separation from family” (OHCHR, 2017).

These vulnerabilities may apply to individual migrants or to groups of migrants. For example, an individual migrant may have chosen to migrate due to their personal experience with poverty, whereas a group of migrants may have felt compelled to migrate due to discrimination and persecution.

Vulnerabilities may also arise due to circumstances encountered in transit. This can include threats to physical safety as a result of difficult transit conditions – such as unsafe means of transportation – as well as threats of exploitation posed by human traffickers, migrant smugglers, and unscrupulous officials. Migrants in transit may be particularly vulnerable to rights violations and abuses, especially when they have irregular immigration status.

Once at their destination, migrants may face new vulnerabilities, such as language barriers, challenges to integration and xenophobia. They may be targeted by exploitative employers and landlords who take advantage of their limited knowledge of local conditions and reduced bargaining power. Some migrants, particularly migrants with irregular immigration status, are unwilling to access social services due to fear of detection, even if they are legally entitled to those services. Migrants with irregular immigration status may be subject to – or have a real fear of – arrest, detention and deportation, and are therefore vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation by those who threaten to report them.

Policy Approaches
Operationalizing the model

The Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability Model can be applied before, during or after migration.

Before migration

  • Encourage safe and informed migration, and prevent violence, exploitation, or abuse against individual migrants or groups of migrants. This involves examining factors at individual, household/family, community and structural levels to identify motivations, risk factors and protective factors.

During migration

  • Identify vulnerable migrants to enable measures to prevent harm, and to develop appropriate protection and assistance responses.

After migration

  • Identify vulnerable migrants to prevent harm and to develop appropriate protection and assistance plans. These plans should aim to support longer-term sustainable resolutions. If used in returns, they should address vulnerabilities and promote sustainable reintegration.
  • Ensure that the State is meeting its responsibility to ensure that the protections outlined in international law are afforded to all people, including migrants.
To Go Further
A Comprehensive response to address migrants’ vulnerabilities

As the Determinants of Migrant Vulnerability Mechanism Model outlines, the factors that lead to migrant vulnerabilities do not operate in isolation. When assessing the needs, available services and support for vulnerable migrants, all factors should be considered, including the interaction between factors at the individual, household/family, community and structural levels.

Policy Approaches
Developing a comprehensive response to protect and assist vulnerable migrants
  • Ensure that the comprehensive response includes joint programming at individual, household/family, community and structural levels.
  • At the community level, implement campaigns to sensitize the receiving community with regard to the rights of migrants, aiming to change attitudes and behaviours. Community leaders could be engaged to promote social cohesion and to ensure that migrants have access to the services to which they are entitled.
  •  At the structural level, ensure that efforts to address corruption, and to uphold the rights of the migrants, are undertaken, if needed. Structural interventions to improve political, economic, and security conditions in the country of origin could contribute to the spontaneous return of migrants to their countries of origin.
Case Study
A comprehensive response to address migrants’ vulnerability

Case 1: Yasmina

An adult woman is sick with tuberculosis, but there is no treatment available in her town. Eventually she becomes unable to work. Her partner is able to work, but there are limited employment opportunities in town. As the sick woman was the primary income earner for her family, she is considering sending her eldest son, who is 16 years old, abroad for work. Neither of them wants him to have to migrate for work he is a talented student, and they want him to finish his schooling. Also, the places where he could find work are known to mistreat migrant workers, and they want their family to stay intact.

  • A comprehensive response to this case would involve programming at the individual, household/family, and community level. At the individual level, the woman requires medical treatment, to enable her to return to work. At the household/family level, income support or income generation alternatives are needed, so that the son can stay in education rather than migrate alone. At the community level, programming to improve the availability of medical services and employment opportunities would improve this family’s circumstances and resilience.

Case 2: Pascal

A middle-aged man attempts to move to a different county, but his visa application is denied. He decides to pay smugglers to get him there. He leaves with the smugglers, who are taking him overland, which requires travelling through several other countries. One of the countries is experiencing a political crisis and violence has broken out. The man does not speak the local language, and does not feel safe on his own. His smugglers take advantage of the situation and lock him up, beat him, and threaten to turn him over to authorities if he does not get his family and friends to send money. He is discovered by a cleaner who calls law enforcement. He is put in immigration detention.

  • A comprehensive response would involve programming at individual and structural levels. Individual-level programming could include legal assistance to help him to exit detention. Structural-level programming in his home country could include law enforcement action against the smuggling of migrants. It could also include the development of laws and policies in the country in which he was detained to protect migrants subject to violence by smugglers.
Source

Adapted from IOM, 2019.

To Go Further
Key messages
  • Vulnerable migrants are migrants who are unable effectively to enjoy their human rights, are at increased risk of violations and abuse and who, accordingly, are entitled to call on a duty bearer’s heightened duty of care.
  •  A range of factors at individual, household/family, community and structural levels contribute to the risk of, or protect against, violence, exploitation, or abuse within a migration context.
  • Vulnerabilities may arise as a result of factors, conditions or experiences at each specific stage of the migration process: they may arise from the reasons for leaving countries of origin; they may arise due to circumstances associated with being in transit; and once at their destination, migrants may face new vulnerabilities, such as language barriers, challenges in integration, and xenophobia.
  • The types of protection relevant to migrants (including vulnerable migrants) include human rights protection, legal protection, physical protection, social protection and humanitarian protection.
  • Referral pathways between different systems are essential to ensure that the needs of those requiring protection are met. Referral pathways often include both protection and assistance services.
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