Keywords
Migration, Refugees, Migrants
Abstract
Once every generation or so, entire fields of law require a full reset. We need to step back from the fray and rethink basic premises, ask new questions, and even recast the role of law itself. This moment has come for the law governing migration. Seasoned observers of immigration and refugee law have developed answers to core questions that emerged a generation ago. But now these observers often talk past each other, and their answers often fail to engage coherently with the daunting challenges posed by migration in this anxious age.
To try to do better, I undertake four inquiries. In isolation they may seem familiar, but I combine them here in new ways to find a path forward. The first and second inquiries rethink approaches to immigration law that emerged in the twentieth century, but can be too narrow to answer today's and tomorrow's pressing questions. The third and fourth inquiries show how the new migration law should push past its traditional boundaries. By rethinking what migration law is, I offer a roadmap for understanding migrants, refugees, and citizens now and into the future.
Recommended Citation
Hiroshi Motomura, The New Migration Law: Migrants, Refugees, and Citizens in an Anxious Age, 105 Cornell L. Rev. 457
(2020)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/clr/vol105/iss2/4