On the Intersections of Globalized Capitalism and National Polities | transversal texts
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When talking about migrants and refugees we immediately encounter problems of definition. In sociology, anybody moving from one country to another is a migrant. A rather old – as well as old-fashioned – theory of migration defines “push and pull factors” of migration (Lee 1966). Flight here would form a specific type of migration, namely “forced migration,” or, to put it in the terms of Everett S. Lee’s theory, a form of migration mainly or exclusively triggered by push-factors.
According to the legal situation in most countries of the global North, however, a refugee has the right to find protection in another country on the grounds of having a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion" (Geneva Convention). The rights of most migrants to immigrate, in contrast, depend on their utility for the target country – above all, the need for their work capacity.[1] Thus, the reasons for the right to stay lie in the needs of the refugee in the case of asylum and in the needs of the receiving country in the case of labor migration.