Marius Olivier
Director of the Institute for Social Law and Policy

Marius is the director of the Institute for Social Law and Policy, and holds adjunct professorial positions. He has been specialising in the area of migration, but also its relation with social protection, social security and labour law, in particular in the African context. He is currently undertaking a project for the intra-ACP Migration Facility to mainstream migration into national development plans (Lesotho); doing a national labour migration assessment for IOM in Uganda; and is involved in a project to identify and formulate a future EU-funded Action that would support Africa and EU stakeholders in providing comprehensive responses to migration and mobility. Marius has led a large number of projects in the social protection and migration domains: he recently drafted a policy on the inclusion of non-citizens in the social security system of South Africa; authored several reports for the ILO on addressing the social protection plight of migrant workers and their families from several Southern Africa countries (in particular on their access to South African social security benefits) and on the feasibility of a multilateral social security agreement affecting migrants in the EAC (East African Community) and SADC (Southern Africa Development Community); and developed (in 2013, for the inter-ACP Migration Facility) a migration and development policy for Lesotho preceded by a situation and gap analysis report. He recently revised for the SADC Secretariat the draft Protocol on Employment and Labour aimed at including labour migration dimensions; authored a study for the World Bank on social protection for non-citizens in the SADC; and undertook comprehensive legal drafting for a number of countries, also on behalf of the ILO, which among others addresses the position of non-citizens, and a recent migration and development-focused revision of the Lesotho Aliens Control Act (for the intra-ACP Migration Facility). Marius has organised several consultative workshops and seminars on migration-related themes, and has authored, co-authored and co-edited several recent publications, papers and reports on migration and social protection, including:

1. Olivier, Dupper & Govindjee “Enhancing the protection of transnational migrant workers” in Ales & Senatori (eds) The transnational dimension of labour relations: A new order in the making? (Giappichelli Publishers, 2013);
2. Olivier and Govindjee “Labour rights and social protection of migrant workers: In search of a co-ordinated legal response” paper presented at the Labour Law Research Network Inaugural Conference (Barcelona, 2013)).
3. "Social security developments in the SADC Region and future prospects for coordination" in Social Security and Migrant Workers: Selected studies of cross-border social security mechanisms (eds: R Blanpain, P Ortiz, G Vonk & M Olivier) (forthcoming, Kluwer, 2013)
4. Report on portability of social rights (Migrating for Work Research Consortium Project funded by the European Union – EU-South Africa Dialogue Facility EuropeAid/132200/L/ACT/ZA) (with R Beremauro & B Deacon) (forthcoming, 2014)

Marius also served as the team leader of a comprehensive recently released study for the European Commission, i.e. Study on social protection in sub-Saharan Africa (project for the European Commission) (DEVCO/B3) (2013) – this study reflects among others on the social protection issues impacting on migrant workers and their families.