Research

The Right to Travel: Toward an Ethics of Short-Term Mobility

Abstract:

The ethics and politics of international migration are two topics that have been central to both academic and political debates over the last few decades. Most migration scholars think and write almost exclusively about long-term and permanent immigration. Nevertheless, most cross-border movement of people is short-term and not with the intent to settle. This has resulted in the underdevelopment of normative theory on the right to travel. This dissertation theorizes short-term mobility across political borders addressing international travel, temporary and circular migration. I argue for a human right to travel, explain that right’s moral and practical limits, and examine the normative implications of such a right for democratic politics. Throughout the dissertation, I point out the global mobility divide that leads to global inequality of opportunity, and I argue that existing normative arguments for national border controls do not justify excluding travelers, temporary and circular migrants. Instead, we should consider separate reasons to restrict short-term mobility and examine the objections to short-term mobility.

Chapter 1 introduces the subject matter and the methodology, and it briefly demonstrates the history of passports and the practice of mobility of the present age. Chapter 2 explores the concept of travel in the history of political thought to understand what philosophers thought about short-term mobility and migration. Chapter 3 proposes a right to travel benefiting from a pluralist conception of human rights, and it shows why this right does not ground a right to long-term and permanent migration. Chapter 4 examines the normative arguments for border controls, which are grounded on states’ right to self-determination, the freedom of (dis)association, the welfare state, the duty to compatriots, and brain drain. It argues that these arguments do not justify excluding travelers, temporary and circular migrants from the territory. It responds to the overstay objection. Chapter 5 presents potential reasons for travel restrictions, and it discusses the moral criteria for selecting travelers. Chapter 6 examines the democratic theory objection to mobility. It introduces two conceptions of the demos, which suggests that short-term migrants are owed democratic justification, but they are not necessarily owed citizenship. It, then, argues that short-term mobility does not undermine the value of democracy and democratic citizenship. Chapter 7 concludes.