Climate Change already having serious impacts on the lives of millions of people across the world. These impacts are not only ecological, but also social, economic and legal. Among the most significant of such impacts is climate change-induced migration. The implications of this on human rights raise pressing questions, which require serious scholarly reflection. Drawing together experts in this field, Climate Change, Migration and Human Rights offers a fresh perspective on human rights law and policy issues in the climate change regime by examining the interrelationships between various aspects of human rights, climate change and migration. Three key themes are explored: understanding the concepts of human dignity, human rights and human security; the theoretical nexus between human rights, climate change and migration or displacement; and the practical implications and challenges for lawyers and policy-makers of protecting human dignity in the face of climate change and displacement. The book also includes a series of case studies from Alaska, Bangladesh, Kenya and the Pacific islands which aim to improve our understanding of the theoretical and practical implications of climate change for human rights and migration. This book will be of great interest to scholars of environmental law and policy, human rights law, climate change, and migration and refugee studies.

This book analyses the multifaceted ways law operates in the context of human mobility, as well as the ways in which human mobility affects law. Migration law is conventionally understood as a tool to regulate human movement across borders, and to define the rights and limits related to this movement. But drawing upon the emergence and development of the discipline of mobility studies, this book pushes the idea of migration law towards a more general concept of mobility that encompass the various processes, effects, and consequences of movement in a globalized world. In this respect, the book pursues a shift in perspective on how law is understood. Drawing on the concepts of ‘kinology’ and ‘kinopolitics’ developed by Thomas Nail as well as ‘mobility justice’ developed by Mimi Sheller, the book considers movement and motion as a constructive force behind political and social systems; and hence stability that needs to be explained and justified. Tracing the processes through which static forms, such as state, citizenship, or border, are constructed and how they partake in production of differential mobility, the book challenges the conventional understanding of migration law. More specifically, and in revealing its contingent and unstable nature, the book reveals how human mobility is itself constitutive of law. This interdisciplinary book will appeal to those working in the areas of migration and refugee law, citizenship studies, mobility studies, legal theory, and sociolegal studies.

Protecting human mobility is a complex homeland security challenge. U.S. borders are crossed nearly 500 million times a year, and over a quarter of all Americans have passports. The U.S. government faces a daunting challenge in protecting people on the move from the risks of direct attack, preventing the travel and immigration system from being exploited by terrorists and criminals, and infusing it with resilience against breakdowns. In this book Susan Ginsburg, formerly a senior counsel on the staff of the 9/11 Commission, examines the massive enforcement buildup that has occurred since 9/11, and she finds it out of sync with some of the government's security imperatives. By reducing this enormous protection task to one of border security and immigration enforcement, she argues, policymakers deemphasize many of the critical elements on which mobility security depends. Adequate protection requires direct action to stop terrorist attacks, human trafficking, multinational gangs, and other criminals and conspirators. It must ensure the integrity of mobility infrastructure, from laws to territorial and airport border points. And it has to prevent life-threatening, uncontrolled, and illicit movement. To advance these goals, Ginsburg proposes a range of policy and programmatic undertakings, from travel bans to new international organizations. This innovative worksets a new agenda for U.S. security policy and practice in the context of travel, immigration, migration, and borders.

A critical assessment from the perspective of political and legal theory of how shifting borders impact on migration, mobility and the protection of displaced persons

This comprehensive Research Handbook provides an overview of the debates on how the law does, and could, relate to migration exacerbated by climate change. It contains conceptual chapters on the relationship between climate change, migration and the law, as well as doctrinal and prospective discussions regarding legal developments in different domestic contexts and in international governance.

* Comprehensive and passionate exploration of the debates surrounding the politics, economics and ethics of international migration * Offers suggestions for humane and rational immigration policies The popular discourse on immigration in North America and Western Europe is usually framed in terms of violations to national law, fueled by fear and propped up by the myths of nationhood. The rhetoric maintains that immigrants as individuals threaten jobs, the local economy and the cultural identity of a country. But these views fail to consider the ironic reality: that the developed world, which tries so emphatically to keep poor people out, itself produces the systemic economic conditions that foster migration. Humane Migration provides a fresh look at the debate on international migration in general and immigration to the United States, Europe and Canada in particular. It explains clearly why groups migrate and the obstacles they face during their journeys and after arriving at their destinations. Arguing that migration is a human right, the authors call for better policies that recognize these rights and the many benefits that migrants provide to their new communities. This book is an essential text for policy makers, students and activists who seek justice for the world’s vulnerable populations.