A document circulated at the Cairo conference, authored by the International Labor Organization and the UN High Commission for Refugees calls for supplying immigrants with realistic information about conditions in destination countries to counter myths and illusions about the kind of lives immigrant workers actually face. Non-governmental organizations in the Philippines, for instance, which supplies migrant labor to countries in Southeast Asia and the Arabian peninsula, attempt to warn perspective emigrants about labor abuse, especially women who often face virtual captivity by their potential employers. NGO's and the consulates of some sending countries are the main sources of this kind of help at the present, but only in a few countries. This is already true of tens of thousands of Mexican workers, who cross daily to work in agriculture or in homes and businesses in cities like El Paso and San Diego, and return to Mexico each night. The Convention extends basic human rights without distinction to all migrant workers and members of their families, documented or undocumented.
Immigration is a relationship between countries, forged by people passing back and forth.
The problems which this movement poses can't be solved by the actions of one country alone. The Convention therefore starts by defining a set of rules which guide both countries. All countries retain the right to determine who is admitted to their territories, and under what conditions people gain the right to work. Predictably, countries which send immigrants favor the Convention, and countries which receive them don't. Already, three western countries are rumored to have rejected it.