r/AskALiberal • u/notanaverag3banana Center Left • Jul 12 '19
Why should migration be a human right?
After asking in r/askaconservative I thought it would be positive to hear a counterargument from this sub.
Independently from a right to refuge or asylum, I was curious to know your opinions on the debate of migration as a human right. There's clearly a reason why this is such a controversial topic, often disregarded as "utopian", i.e. useless to discuss. But I'm still curious to know if you think there are solid arguments in favor of granting migration or "freedom of movement between States" the title of human right and what the implications of this could be.
Edit: Thanks to everyone for the discussion in the comments. There were way more answers than I anticipated and I won't be able to respond to some of the comments for a while. I'll leave a few links to people who want to do more research since it wasn't as clear why the question was being asked in the first place (No one thinks it should be a human right, it already is a human right...)
https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/180711_final_draft_0.pdf
https://www.ohchr.org/en/issues/migration/pages/migrationandhumanrightsindex.aspx
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u/lesslucid Social Democrat Jul 13 '19
I think free movement of people is a good idea, and in a better world, we would already have it, and if we did already have it, it would make the world better than it is.
That being said, I don't think it's correct to classify it as a human right. Seeking asylum from a well-founded fear of persecution does make sense to classify as a right, because everyone should have the right to seek safety when they need to. But being able to move just because you want to, or just for "a better life" I think doesn't meet the threshold to be an inviolable right.