Transnational Migration Contesting Borders of Responsibility for Justice

an article by Zuzana Uhde (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic) published in Critical Sociology Volume:45 Issue 6 (September 2019)

Abstract

The article focuses on structural causes of migration, putting forward an argument that such analysis sheds light on key shortcomings of today’s global geopolitical regime.

First the author analyzes structural causes of transnational migration in global capitalism. She argues that transnational migrants represent a structural group of people who find themselves in a similar position in relation to social structures of current global economic architecture even though they do not necessarily have a collective identity.

Second, the author discusses the methodological and practical limits of the current nation-state defined framework of responsibility for global justice which does not respond to structural causes of transnational migration and reproduces the internal contradictions of the international human rights regime.

Following this critical analysis, the author focuses on the possibilities of extraterritorial obligations for justice, which are partly embedded in the current international law.

Then she outlines an argument for a differentiated responsibility for global justice.

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