Webinar: Split Legality: Race, Class and International Migration Law

International law doctrine on migration has always been characterised by a split/bifurcated/dual legality - rather than the usual narrative of progressive restrictiveness. On the one hand, Europeans and their descendants in settler colonies have a right to free movement, while working class non-Europeans do not.

Early modern doctrine construes a natural law right to migrate, while simultaneously the forced migration of enslaved Africans and Asians was found unproblematic (e.g. Grotius). After industrialisation, free movement within Europe was upheld through a dense network of bilateral free trade treaties; migration restrictions were applied to racialised foreign workers (Asians in the US and Australia, in Europe Jews, North-Africans, initially also Italians).

Since WWII, a system has been worked out which ‘does race’ without ‘saying race’, while class is an explicit category. In Europe, the Schengen visa system has this effect (nationality as a proxy for race). In addition, visa-lite systems such as ETIAS and ESTA, the impending Entry-Exit System (EES) and the Passenger Name Record system (PNR) have the effect of subjecting racialised ‘visa-free’ nationals as well as racialised citizens to intensified controls and thus are thus perfecting the racialisation of the international law of migration.

Hence, the key characteristic of international migration law is not increasing restriction, but bifurcation allowing for a right to mobility for the few and restrictions for the many.

This online lecture is the of the meeting on  “Mobility Rights in the Global Context of Multiple Crises” at the University of Göttingen and takes place online on October 7th, 16:00-17:30 CEST

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