This insightful book discusses how policymakers define migrant workers’ status and rights at international and national levels. Assessing the evolution of the language of rights for migrant workers in international law; definition of migrant workers in Turkish legislation; key political and economic factors on Turkish migration policies; protection mechanisms that safeguard migrant workers’ rights, it critically examines the policymaking processes at international, regional and national levels and evaluates the impact of the ‘values’ such as universal or ethnocentric values, on the definitions of status and rights of migrant workers.

The chapters evaluate the status and rights of migrant workers through the lens of cosmopolitan moral constructivism and examine the law making procedures and illustrate the dynamism of these processes with the inclusion of various conditions and actors. The book dissects the key universal and national values that impact on rights of migrant workers. This timely book challenges the rising right-wing ethnocentric policy approaches to (labour) migration to migrant workers’ rights, and problematises the existing legal definitions within migration policies that place the rights of migrant workers into a precarious policy sphere.

By entering the controversial political debate for labour migration and the policy making realm, this book is ideal for scholars and researchers of political science, international relations and social policy, particularly those focusing on international (labour) migration and migration policies. It will further benefit the policymakers and practitioners working on migration, such as UN agencies, NGOs, civil societies and local authorities.