Borders and

International
Migration
POLI1016: Problems in Global
Politics| Lecture 4 | 8th February
2024
Today’s goals

• To understand the scale and types of contemporary migration

• To think about the benefits and challenges that migration

offers to the state and global politics

• To apply these examples to the arguments in lecture 3

Hitting the headlines
Migration and the nation state

• Migration and movement of peoples has a long history

• Trade, asylum, diplomacy etc. since ancient world ideas of non-residents,
aliens etc.

• Concept of ‘international migration’ only makes sense or becomes relevant in

context of modern system of territorial states
• Control over borders/entrance of peoples fundamental to sovereignty
• Montevideo Convention (1933) – ‘defined and permanent population’

• Issues of states’ (ethno)identity become visible  ‘idealized homogenous state’

challenged
Passport strength (2023)

5
Borders and mobility

• Borders are more than simply lines demarcating territory  where security
and identity are produced
• Building of vast bordering infrastructure
• The ‘virtual border’: surveillance, biometrics, and AI

• “Identity and security have become enmeshed…[some people’s] mobility is

seen as a threat, and that threat is met at the border…an imperfect but
practical solution”

• Borders are sites of ‘social sorting’ (Lyon, 2002)  vastly different experiences
of the border according to race, economic status, identity
 What is
international migration?
Who is a ‘migrant’?

• Definitions vary (and are politicized).

Working definition at the UN is a person
who ‘has lived outside their country for
more than a year’

• Difficulties with this approach:

• (1) covers a vast range of people and
experiences
• (2) Very hard to count migrants/measure
time
• (3) when do people stop being migrants?
•
Migrations categorized

• Not everyone migrates for identical reasons  Two main categories in

International Law

• Voluntary or free migration

• (a) legal permanent settler migration
• (b) legal temporary migration
• (c) irregular or illegal migration

• Involuntary or forced migration  refugee flows

• Relevance: existence of an international regime and norms to deal with

Migration in data:

• IOM report (2022) notes that 281 million

people (or 3.6% of global population) are
migrants
• Increasing 300% since 1970

• Different political, economic and

demographic factors  patterns or
‘migration corridors’
• Type and location of corridors is
evolving rapidly
 Refugees in the 21st century

• States don’t have complete control over the acceptance and treatment of refugees
• Enshrined in IHL since 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol (ratified 149
countries)
• Universal declaration of Human Rights (1948), esp. article 14

• Such treaties safeguard only the right to seek refugee status. In practice there is ‘near
total international acceptance’ of state sovereignty (Bali, 2018)
• Who is defined as a ‘refugee’ is a political decision, cf. US and communism until 1980
• Palestinian refugees (5.9 million) and the definition of refugees

• Growing exponentially and with different (legal) jurisdictions:

• Refugees: 29.4 million vs. 62.5 million ‘internally displaced persons’
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 The European ‘refugee crisis’

• 2015-6 Europe saw largest mass migration

since WW2
• Mixture of all categories of migrant
• UNHCR: 1.2 million (2015) and 345,000
(2016)

• Emergence of particular “migration corridors”

with Turkey and Italy being main points of
arrival
• Final destinations varied (Germany highest)
• Three main countries of origin (Syria,
Afghanistan, Iraq) as well as Pakistan,
What does the distribution of refugees tell us?
Migration: benefits and challenges
 States’ responses to migration

• Border infrastructure (esp. against

irregular migration)  walls, surveillance
etc.

• Development of domestic legal

responses
• Highly contested (e.g. Illegal
Immigration Bill)
• Regional coordination, e.g. the EU

• Asylum seekers  refugees  citizens

via two main models for migration
The benefits of migration

• Benefits of migration depends on country of origin vs. host country

• Immigrant communities ‘play outsized political role’ in diplomacy and foreign

policy

• Hosts:
• Economic growth, skills gaps, aging societies, innovation, cultural diversity
• Example: UK (2022) 19.4% total workforce (6.2 million) born abroad

• Countries of origin:
• Increased opportunities for work and education
• Remittances  significant driver of many economies (now outstripping foreign aid)
• Returning citizens bring new technology, skills etc.
Migration and the global economy

(Remittances over time; World Bank, 2024) (Remittances as % of GDP, 2023)

Migration and security

• In the 21st century the most politically significant

critiques of migration relate to migration as a
threat to security

• New notions of ‘security threat’ emerge after end

of the CW
• New types of actors seen as a threat (terrorism,
environmental)
• 9/11 & the ‘War on Terror’  connects threats and
migration

• International migration heavily securitized since

 Migration and violent conflict

• Forced migration is ‘multi-causal phenomenon’

• (economic crises, climate change, food insecurity)

• Dyadic relationship between migration and violent

conflict
• Most IDPs, asylum seekers, and refugees result from
conflict
• As civil and irregular warfare increase  drives
exponential growth in refugeeism

• Fears of spillover effects from ‘failed states’ and civil

wars
(Failed States Index, 2023)
 Societal and internal security

• Admitting migrants has long-lasting effects on

receiving countries
• Changes in demographics and culture
• Pressures on social cohesion
• Can create domestic political issues

• Perceptions and misperceptions often drive social

anxieties
• Significant if migrants are seen as economic
burdens
• Less in global north but sever in developing
nations
 Human security of migrants

• Forced migrants are among the most vulnerable in Global Politics

• Especially true of stateless persons (4.4 million)
• Often fall outside protections granted by citizenship

• Migration itself is a perilous and insecure undertaking  worsened by states’

bordering practices
• Dangers of irregular migration (inc. death toll)
• Arrests, detention, deportation (see link)
• Experience is often highly gendered  increasing evidence from the UNHCR
• Life within host nations

• The existence of increasing forced migration and the global system’s response to
forced migrants illuminates several issues with the system itself.
What does this reveal about the
international system?
Migration and states (again)…

• Recap: migration often disrupts the idealistic

assumption of the ‘nation state’

• Incompatibility between a territorially bounded

globe and the natural migration needs of people

• There is a legal and jurisdiction gap – human rights

generally provided by states to their citizens…
doesn’t apply to refugees

• Drivers and consequences of (forced) migration are

very unevenly felt across nations
 Governing the ‘refugee regime’

• Loescher (2021) argues that the global response to refugee movements is hindered by
the structure of the international system

• Legal-jurisdiction gap can only be filled via international cooperation between states
• Increased reticence by states to uphold agreements (e.g. RC 1951)
• Xenophobia etc. within states amplifying issues between states

• Changes in global order has eroded the commitment to collective response

• UNHCR coordinates but is ultimately beholden to states

• Issues of funding  $10.6 Billion (2024) voluntarily funded largely by Global North
• Agenda of donor nations prevails  disparity in pressures on asylum regimes
Some takeaways:

• International migration is rapidly increasing, and its causes are evermore

diverse

• Connections between migration and security issues (international, internal,

and human) places migrants at the top of many nations’ security agendas

• Migration can challenge assumptions about the state itself (e.g. its
sovereignty) and can both confer significant benefits and drive complex
challenges

• Migrants (esp. refugees) fall outside the main legal structures in the
What’s coming up this week?