Geneva, June 2026. The Scalabrini International Migration Network (SIMN) is participating in the 114th International Labour Conference (ILC) of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the main global forum bringing together governments, employers, and workers to shape the future of the world of work.
In this edition, the ILC addresses structural challenges such as digitalization, inequality, and labor fragmentation, with a particular focus on the platform economy, a topic closely linked to global migration governance.
The expansion of digital platforms is redefining labor relations on a global scale, generating opportunities but also increasing labor precarity, invisibility, and exclusion, especially among migrant workers. SIMN warns that, without adequate protection of labor rights and access to social protection systems, these new forms of work deepen vulnerabilities and weaken the effective exercise of migrants’ fundamental rights.
In this context, the organization underscores the need to strengthen an international framework based on the guarantees established by international labor instruments such as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (1990), ensuring the effective protection of all migrant workers regardless of their migration status.
SIMN also works on the vulnerabilities of migrant workers in situations of particular vulnerability, including access to labor rights, protection from abuse, decent wages, and family protection, emphasizing the need to guarantee equal treatment and opportunities, regardless of migration status.
In light of the encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, by Pope Leo XIV, SIMN reaffirms that the dignity of the person is the fundamental criterion of all public policy, especially in contexts of human transformation and technology. In this sense, it warns of the risk of reducing human beings to a resource or productive factor and insists on the need to guide innovation and digital work toward the common good, social justice, and fraternity.
The convergence of work and digital platforms presents a key moment for the future of global labor, requiring concrete commitments to guarantee decent work, universal rights, and inclusive protection systems.
Final Exhortation
From the inspiration of the Scalabrinian charism, SIMN calls on the international community to place the human person at the center of the economy and work, promoting policies that prioritize human dignity over any market-driven logic.
In a world shaped by profound technological and migratory transformations, it is unacceptable for progress to be built at the cost of exclusion. The future of work must be grounded in a culture of fraternity, encounter, and justice, where every person—and especially those who migrate—can access truly decent work.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ilopictures/albums/72177720333726552/with/55306921506