Cameron Miranda
Migration laws are a complex set of norms and principles that govern the movement of people across borders. While migration has occurred throughout human history, the development of specific laws and regulations to manage and control it is a more recent phenomenon. The earliest attempts to regulate immigration can be traced back to the late 18th century, with the United States being one of the first countries to enact such laws following its independence from Great Britain. Over time, migration laws have evolved in response to changing political, social, and economic dynamics, reflecting the complexities of global migration patterns. Today, migration laws encompass a range of legal branches, including human rights law, humanitarian law, refugee law, criminal law, and labour law, highlighting the multifaceted nature of migration and the need to protect the rights and well-being of those involved.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Basis | E. G. Ravenstein's three articles on migration |
| Year of Publication | 1876, 1885, and 1889 |
| Number of Laws | 11 |
| Focus | Economic factors |
| Data Used | 1871 and 1881 UK census data |
| Other | Downplayed the roles of politics and culture |
| International Migration Law (IML) | Protects the rights of migrants and regulates migration |
| US Immigration Laws | Focused on nationality quotas, family reunification, skilled immigrants, and border control |
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What You'll Learn
E. G. Ravenstein's hypotheses on migration
E. G. Ravenstein was the first scholar to conduct a thorough study of internal migration. His earliest papers were published in 1876, followed by more detailed studies in 1885 and 1889. His work was descriptive and interpretative, and he used British Census data to develop a set of hypotheses that have guided migration research since.
Ravenstein's hypotheses, often referred to as "laws", revolve around several key themes. One of his core ideas is the concept of "step migration", where migrants move from place to place, working as they go, until they settle. He estimated that about 25% of migrants travelled long distances without stopping, usually ending up in major cities. This idea of counter-currents, where people are leaving and simultaneously moving into a place, is still being studied today.
Ravenstein also focused on gender differences in migration. He believed that women were more migratory than men and tended to migrate over shorter distances. However, men were more likely to migrate overseas. In the case of internal migration, he found that rates were similar for both genders.
Additionally, Ravenstein's work highlighted the role of economic factors and opportunities in migration. He noted that migrants responded to differences in opportunities, particularly the availability of better-paying jobs in one part of a country compared to another. He also recognised the importance of public infrastructure, such as roads, climate, and taxation, in influencing migration decisions.
Furthermore, Ravenstein's studies extended beyond the UK. In his final paper, he analysed data from continental Europe (including Germany, the Netherlands, France, and Italy), as well as the United States and Canada. His work has been influential in the field of migration studies in geography and other social sciences.
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International migration law (IML)
The rights of migrants are enshrined in various international and regional instruments, including human rights law, humanitarian law, refugee law, criminal law, and labour law. While there is no single comprehensive and binding international instrument for migration governance, several international rules govern state authority, responsibility, and obligations, as well as individual rights in migration. These rules are established through state-to-state relations, negotiations, and practices, and are enshrined in legally binding treaties.
The IOM promotes a protection-centred approach, prioritizing the human rights and well-being of all migrants. The organization assists states in developing rights-based migration governance frameworks, emphasizing saving lives, protecting people on the move, addressing displacement, and facilitating regular migration pathways. The IOM's initiatives are rooted in the principles of human rights and dignity, ensuring that migrants have full access to justice and redress in cases of rights violations.
International migration law establishes standards for the treatment of a diverse range of migrants, including women, men, children, refugees, stateless persons, migrant workers, and victims of trafficking. The legal framework provided by IML ensures that states uphold transparency in policy design and implementation, address discrimination, and enable meaningful participation in decision-making processes for individuals.
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US immigration laws and history
The United States started regulating immigration soon after it gained independence from Great Britain. The laws that were enacted reflected the politics and migrant flows of the time.
In 1790, the Naturalization Act was passed, which was the first law to specify who could become a citizen. Citizenship was limited to ""free whites" of "good moral character" who had lived in the US for at least two years. This law also imposed a five-year residency requirement for naturalization. In 1802, the Steerage Act was passed, which regulated the conditions of transportation for people arriving and departing by sea. It set a limit of two passengers for every five tons of ship burden and required ship captains to report a list of disembarking passengers.
In 1870, the right of citizenship was extended to those of African origin. Starting in 1875, a series of restrictions on immigration were enacted, including bans on criminals, people with contagious diseases, polygamists, anarchists, beggars, and importers of prostitutes. These restrictions also targeted the rising number of Asian immigrants, first limiting migration from China and then banning immigration from most Asian countries.
In 1921, the Emergency Quota Act was passed, which established national immigration quotas favoring European immigrants. In 1923, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind that South Asian Indians were classified as non-white, allowing for the retroactive stripping of citizenship from Indians who had gained it illegally. In 1924, another law was passed that capped total annual immigration and imposed numerical quotas based on immigrant nationality.
In 1943, the Chinese exclusion laws were repealed, and a law was passed allowing a limited number of Chinese immigrants. The Luce-Cellar Act of 1946 ended discrimination against Filipino and Indian Americans, according them the right to naturalization. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 revised the national origins formula, allotting quotas in proportion to the national origins of the population as per the 1920 census. This act also established a preference system within quotas, giving first preference to immigrants with special skills.
In 1965, the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act was passed, which created a new system favoring family reunification and skilled immigrants. This law opened the doors to immigrants from all parts of the world, shifting the predominant immigration flow away from Europe towards Asia and Latin America.
More recently, laws have been shaped by concerns about refugees, unauthorized immigration, and terrorism. In 1986, the Immigration Reform and Control Act granted legalization to millions of unauthorized immigrants, mainly from Latin America, and imposed sanctions on employers who hired them. In 1990, a law created the "temporary protective status" that shielded immigrants, mainly Central Americans, from deportation to countries facing natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other extraordinary conditions.
In 2012, President Obama allowed young adults brought to the country illegally to apply for deportation relief and a work permit through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In 2014, he expanded the program and set up a similar one for unauthorized immigrant parents of US-born children (DAPA), although these changes are currently on hold due to legal challenges. In 2020, the Trump administration launched the Title 42 Immigration Act, which allowed US authorities to push migrants back to Mexico or their country of origin, citing public health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Refugee laws
The creation of refugee laws was largely a response to the significant displacement of people in the aftermath of the First and Second World Wars. In the wake of the First World War (1914-1918), governments established a set of international agreements to provide travel documents for those fleeing their homelands, effectively recognising the first refugees of the 20th century. During and after World War II (1939-1945), the number of displaced people increased exponentially, prompting the international community to develop a framework of guidelines, laws, and conventions to safeguard the fundamental human rights and treatment of those forced to flee conflict and persecution. This process, initiated under the League of Nations in 1921, culminated in the 1951 Refugee Convention, which built upon and expanded previous international instruments. The 1951 Convention, along with its 1967 Protocol, serves as the cornerstone of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)'s work.
The 1951 Refugee Convention introduced a definition of a refugee, which has been adopted by various countries, including the United States with the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980. According to this definition, a refugee is "any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." This definition has been refined and expanded over time, with the recognition of additional categories, such as sexual orientation, as valid grounds for asylum.
The United States has played a significant role in the resettlement of refugees globally. The Refugee Relief Act of 1953, for instance, authorised nearly 200,000 special non-quota immigrant visas for refugees escaping communist countries. The Hong Kong Parole Program, initiated in 1962, allowed approximately 15,000 Chinese refugees fleeing communist China to enter the U.S. The Refugee Act of 1980 further solidified the U.S.'s commitment to refugee resettlement, establishing a comprehensive framework for addressing refugee crises preemptively, based on emerging humanitarian ideals. This Act shifted the U.S. away from a reactionary system, where refugee laws were passed in response to political changes, towards a more proactive approach.
Despite these advancements, challenges remain in achieving a unified definition of a refugee due to varying interpretations in U.S. law, U.N. Conventions, regional treaties, and colloquial usage. This discrepancy has resulted in considerable confusion, as evident in the case of Venezuelans fleeing socioeconomic conditions such as violent crime and poverty, who did not qualify as refugees under the U.N. definition but were granted refugee status in countries like Brazil. Additionally, under the Trump administration, refugee immigration laws in the U.S. faced setbacks, with officials seeking to reduce immigration and the annual number of refugees admitted.
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Human rights law
Migration laws are informed by international human rights law, which applies to all people at all times. Human rights law is one of several bodies of international law that provide the basis for national migration laws, policies, and practices.
International human rights law lays down obligations that states are bound to respect. These obligations include refraining from human rights violations, such as arbitrary detention, torture, or collective expulsion of migrants. States are also obliged to protect human rights by preventing violations by other actors, such as regulating recruitment agencies, sanctioning abusive employers, and protecting migrants from violence and abuse by smugglers.
In the context of migration, human rights law includes the principle of non-discrimination, which prohibits distinctions based on race, colour, descent, ethnic origin, sex, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion or belief, nationality, migration or residence status, or other status. States should address direct and indirect discrimination and unequal treatment of people in laws, policies, and practices, paying particular attention to the needs of migrants in vulnerable situations.
The Inter-American Commission created a Rapporteurship on the Rights of Migrants in 1996, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights created a Special Rapporteur on refugees, asylum seekers, migrants, and internally displaced persons in 2004. The Universal Human Rights Index (UHRI) is another framework that allows for the exploration of over 170,000 observations and recommendations made by the international human rights protection system.
While migration can be a positive and empowering experience, a lack of human rights-based migration governance at the global and national levels has led to routine violations of migrants' rights in transit, at international borders, and in the countries they migrate to. Migrants in an irregular situation are particularly vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and marginalization, often living and working in fear and being denied their human rights and fundamental freedoms.
To address these issues, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has expanded its legal capacity to assist states in the orderly and humane governance of migration. The IOM established the International Migration Law Unit in 2004 to compile migration-related legal instruments at the international, regional, and national levels and make them easily accessible.
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Frequently asked questions
The laws of migration refer to the international legal norms and principles that protect the rights of migrants and regulate migration. These laws are jointly referred to as international migration law (IML).
The laws of migration were created based on the work of E. G. Ravenstein, a European geographer. Ravenstein published three papers in 1876, 1885, and 1889, in which he set forth several "laws" based on his examination of 1871 and 1881 UK census data. His work laid the foundation for migration studies in geography and other social sciences.
The main criticisms of Ravenstein's work are that it was labeled as "laws" and that it downplayed the roles of politics and culture in favour of economic factors as the main drivers of migration.
The United States began regulating immigration soon after it gained independence from Great Britain. Laws have been passed at various points in history to cap total annual immigration, impose quotas based on nationality, and prioritize family reunification and skilled immigrants.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) plays a key role in migration law. The IOM works to assist states in the orderly and humane governance of migration and has established the International Migration Law Unit to compile migration-related legal instruments at the international, regional, and national levels.
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