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The International Governance of Forced Migration

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Global Insecurity

Abstract

Australia and other developed countries recognize that many irregular migrants are asylum seekers (i.e. individuals whose human security is under such thereat in their country of origin that they have no option but to seek in another country the protection that they cannot find at home). Nevertheless, they regard all irregular migration as a threat to national security (widely conceived) against which defence is required. This chapter analyses why irregular migration perceived as a problem in the first place and considers how the phenomenon can be dealt with in a way which promotes the betterment of sending societies, receiving societies and the irregular migrants themselves. In particular, it considers the possibility of a comprehensive solution to the problem of irregular migration which brings together consideration of asylum seeker, labour migration and development policy issues in a human security framing.

This chapter was written while the author was an academic visitor at the Melbourne Social Equity Institute, University of Melbourne. Its content was current as at 28 September 2015.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    These statistics exclude the 5.1 million Palestinian refugees registered with UNRWA at the end of 2014 (UNHCR 2015c, p. 2).

  2. 2.

    The Refugee Convention provides (Art. 34):

    ‘The Contracting States shall as far as possible facilitate the assimilation and naturalization of refugees. They shall in particular make every effort to expedite naturalization proceedings and to reduce as far as possible the charges and costs of such proceedings.’

    However, this gives rise to a fairly weak right (Hathaway 2005, pp. 163, 252) that cannot be characterised as a right to be granted durable asylum.

  3. 3.

    This is a body that advises its 47 member states on matters of international law.

  4. 4.

    This is not to say that the Refugee Convention is unimportant. The little that it adds to the human rights treaties is indispensable because it is tailored to meet the particular needs of refugees. For example, it obliges states parties not to impose penalties on refugees on account of their illegal entry or presence (Art. 31(1)).

  5. 5.

    It built on an existing interagency group called the Geneva Migration Group.

  6. 6.

    The members are the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, ILO, IOM, Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, UN Regional Commissions, United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), United Nations Development Program, United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UN Women, UNHCR, United Nations Institute for Training and Research, UNODC, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations University, World Bank, and the World Health Organization (Global Migration Group 2015).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. La Trobe University Law School, Melbourne, Australia

    Savitri Taylor

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  1. Savitri Taylor
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Correspondence to Savitri Taylor .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. UNSW , Canberra, Australia

    Anthony Burke

  2. UNSW , Canberra, Australia

    Rita Parker

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Taylor, S. (2017). The International Governance of Forced Migration. In: Burke, A., Parker, R. (eds) Global Insecurity. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95145-1_15

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