Migration Emergencies

This article looks at the legal construction of crisis through the case study of international migration law. It argues that migration crises are constructed by the architecture of the international migration law framework, which is excessively dependent on an antiquated refugee regime. The regime was created as a temporary regime in the wake of WWII but the principle of non-refoulement has stayed with us to this day. This framework creates crises by requiring migrants to access state territory to seek asylum, which encourages risky journeys by people who leave for a complex set of reasons which must then be fit into the legal definition of a refugee in order to stay. International refugee law also does not address the issue of how to process migrants during migration crises. International migration law thus needs to adapt to current needs to migrants and the capacities of states.