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Jimin Son
Ms. Zents
IB SL Geography
10/5/16
I fully understand why countries want to limit migration, but migration is a human right.
Migration is the movement of people, involving a change of residence. It could be either
forced or voluntary. Forced migration is when people are forced to migrate due to civil conflict,
environmental damage, or some form of persecution. These people include asylum-seekers,
refugees, and the IDP (Internally Displaced Persons). Voluntary migration happens when people
choose to migrate due to personal desires, for example, economic migrants who migrate seeking
better jobs. Today, an estimated 244 million people currently reside outside their country
(Miller). This issue brings up the question: Is migration a human right? Basic human rights are
access to food, water, shelter, and security. In cases where people cannot access them and are
forced to move, migration should be treated as a human right. However, countries should also
limit voluntary migration due to its negative impacts on its own citizens.
Migration is a human right for people who lack security, which is fundamental to their
access to other basic human rights. Forced migrants residing in an insecure area are unable to
access other human rights such as food. Therefore, secure countries should be obliged to accept
them. However, voluntary migration is not a human right. Although insufficient basic human
rights may lead to voluntary migration, the biggest difference is that involuntary migrants are not
secure within their country. Relative to voluntary migrants, the government of the origin of the

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forced migrants within the country is usually unable to provide security for its citizens.
Therefore, forced migration is a human right.
Migration, whether forced or voluntary, has both positive and negative impacts on a
country. Migrants contribute to the growth of economy of the country; Dubais population, for
example, consists 85% of migrants (Metropolis Conversation). They contribute to the growth
in local market as consumers. These migrants are also a source of cheap labour force.
However, as these migrants accept lower paid positions, the local population becomes
unemployed. Furthermore, crimes are caused by refugee and asylum seekers - Dadaab Camp in
Kenya is planned to be closed due to prolonged violence (Kenyas Plan). Hence, the increase
in political insecurity and instability is leading to countries limiting its acceptance of
immigration despite the positive effects it can bring. Another reason for the limitation of
migrants is countries with the lack of capacity to support the migrants. Bermuda, for example,
with only 65,000 people, have restricted the amount of migrants to maintain its absorptive
capacity of migration (Von Oswald).
Migration as a human right should only be applied to the extent to which the migrants
have had their human rights violated. Today, all states have their own right to control their
borders. Each state is able to decide who should be admitted into a country. However, if human
rights existed for immigration for all circumstances, this would imply that states would have to
open their borders to all immigrants.
In my opinion, whether migration is a human right depends on the circumstance, and type
of migration. Therefore, voluntary migrants, with an able government should not be granted
immigration as a human right; but rather, granted to those that are forced to immigrate. Hence,

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factors such as political security should be the major determinant to whether migration should be
regarded as a human right or not. Furthermore, the right to immigrate is fulfilled so long as the
other human rights of the immigrants are protected in the society they enter. If the influx of
migrants becomes a breach of the receiving countrys human rights, it is reasonable for the
country to limit its acceptance on migrants in order to secure its borders. In the end, whether a
voluntary or forced migrant, the country that is receiving the migrants should be benefitting
while the migrants also benefit.
{Word Count: 600}

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Works Cited
5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. PewResearchCenter,
www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/09/20/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/
.
Kenyas plan to shut Dadaab refugee camp criticised. Al Jazeera,
www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/dadaab-refugee-camp-somalia-diplomat-opposes-clos
ure-160603051614121.html.
METROPOLIS CONVERSATION SERIES. Metropolis,
canada.metropolis.net/research-policy/conversation/conversation_1.html.
Migration and Human Rights. United Nations Human Rights,
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Migration/Pages/MigrationAndHumanRightsIndex.aspx.
Miller, David. Is there a human right to immigrate? DPIR,
www.politics.ox.ac.uk/materials/publications/13732/sj033is-there-a-human-right-to-immi
grate-final-draft.pdf.
REPORT: Migrants Committing Disproportionately High Crime In Germany While Media And
Govt Focus on Far Right Thought Crimes. BreitBart,
www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/23/germany-registers-surge-crimes-right-wing-radica
ls/.

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VON OSWALD, A.: DOES A HUMAN RIGHT OF MIGRATION EXIST? 2012. Migration
Citizenship Education,
migrationeducation.de/33.2.html?&rid=225&cHash=6ce95b4a16466a0aaee3f93af5e5380
4.