E/CN.4/2005/85 page 11 Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Some unions have joined in national campaigns for the ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, in the realization that it is a key instrument in efforts to combat discrimination against this group. 32. The Special Rapporteur notes that some Governments have found it necessary to protect their emigrants from discrimination not only on the part of the authorities or employers in host countries, but also by officials in their own diplomatic or consular missions. Addendum 4 to this report describes an inter-agency cooperation agreement between the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Ombudsman, allowing the latter, at the request of Peru’s consular offices and in coordination with the Ombudsman’s counterparts in the host country, to cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs when Peruvian emigrants are in need of humanitarian and/or legal assistance. For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs undertakes to place letter boxes in consular offices to enable complaints and allegations to be addressed directly to the Office of the Ombudsman; in this way the Office obtains first-hand accounts of incidents of discrimination either occurring in Peru’s missions or occasioned by the authorities of the host country (E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.4). 33. In her reports, the Special Rapporteur has listed a series of best practices in combating discrimination, racism and xenophobia through consular advisory and protection services. During her visit to the Philippines in May 2002, she learned of a social service package that provides counselling and medical and legal services to Filipinos abroad. The Philippines has signed agreements with Governments and NGOs in host countries with a view to improving support for Filipinos in distress. Also, its embassies in those countries issue advisories on labour and employment conditions there (E/CN.4/2003/85/Add.4). The Special Rapporteur has also gathered information on similar initiatives undertaken in the framework of consultative processes on migration management, most notably the establishment of a Central American consulate in Veracruz, Mexico. The brainchild of the Regional Conference on Migration, this project channels resources for assistance and protection of immigrants from the countries of the region (A/58/275, para. 60). Another example is provided by Mexican consulates in the United States, which have issued nearly 1 million consular identification cards since March 2002 to Mexicans resident in the United States. With these cards, the Mexicans can obtain driving licences and gain access to banking services to send remittances home. The consular identification card is accepted in more than 30 states and 160 banks in the United States. 34. The Special Rapporteur has also collected examples of discrimination against migrants in access to the labour market and in home purchase or rental. She has reported cases of indirect discrimination in education where drop-out rates for immigrants are higher than the rates for the country as a whole (E/CN.4/2005/85/Add.3). Policies on social integration for immigrants should be thoroughly reviewed from a human rights perspective, for there are large numbers of immigrants who would like to obtain permanent residence. The Special Rapporteur advocates the development of multicultural patterns of social integration for immigrant minorities, patterns that mitigate exclusion and can stand as alternatives to those forms of integration that attempt to impose certain behavioural norms and promote an increasingly dubious social homogeneity. Compulsory integration programmes designed for residents wishing to settle permanently in the host country may raise discrimination issues if, for example, the selection criteria are based on immigrants’ place of birth.8