Alien
|
In national and international law, as well as in official documents of the EU, the term alien refers to “a foreign-born resident who is not a citizen by virtue of parentage or naturalization and who is still a citizen or subject of another country” (qtd. from the entry in the Encyclopædia Britannica). More often than not, the official use of the term also enters the mass media, where it is deployed to depict ‘those who are not from here.’ Thanks to such ‘common’ language usage which extends beyond legal meanings, the term has the power to shape public discourse on migration, thus forming public opinion and attitudes toward migration. For example, alien could then be taken literally as “belonging to another […] place,” being “born in, or owing allegiance to, a foreign country,” or being “of a foreign nature or character” (definition qtd. from the OED).
In a comprehensive review of language and metaphors of immigration used by the courts and judiciary in the U.S., Keith Cunningham-Parmeter (2011) argues that immigration metaphors not only influence judicial matters but also the social discourse and the broader debate on migration: “The theoretical study of language has very practical consequences for the people defined by immigration metaphors.” (1545) Yet such metaphorical language usage is not restricted to English-speaking contexts. In the Netherlands, for instance, the Dutch term allochtoon, which literally means “emerging from another soil” (and thus constitutes the opposite of the word autochtoon, which translates as “emerging from this soil”) has widely been used to refer to immigrants and their descendants (Bpedia 2023, n. p.). The term was introduced by Dutch sociologist Hilda Verwey-Jonker in the early 1970s as a replacement of the terms guest worker or immigrant to reflect the permanent nature of their stay in the Netherlands. Its implied notion of ‘otherness’ (i.e., the notion of belonging to ‘another soil’) as well as its metaphoric implications of ‘not being of the same root,’ however, eventually led to the official abandonment of the term (Dutch News 2016).
⇢ see also Attitudes, beliefs, and values, Citizenship
References and further reading:
Cunningham-Parmeter, Keith. 2011. “Alien Language: Immigration Metaphors and the Jurisprudence of Alien Language: Immigration Metaphors and the Jurisprudence of Otherness.” Fordham Law Review 79.4: 1545–1598.
DBpdedia. 2023. “About: Allochtoon.” DBpdedia. URL: https://dbpedia.org/page/Allochtoon.
Dutch News. 2016. “Government Agencies to Stop Using to Stop Using ‘Allochtoon’ to Describe Immigrants.” Dutch News. November 1, 2016. URL: https://www.dutchnews.nl/2016/11/government-agencies-to-ditch-allochtoon-to-describe-immigrants/.
European Commission. 2020. “Alien.” European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary. URL: https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/european-migration-network-emn/emn-asylum-and-migration-glossary/glossary/alien_en.
Scholten, Peter. 2013. “The Multilevel Governance of Migrant Integration: A Multilevel Governance Perspective on Dutch Migrant Integration Policies.” In The Discourses and Politics of Migration in Europe, edited by Umut Korkut,, Jonas Hinnfors, and Helen Drake, 151–170. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Category: D
Work Package: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8
[MM]
|
Forced migration or displacement
|
The term forced migration – or forced displacement – refers to those who had to leave their place of usual residence under duress of war, conflict, natural or environmental disasters. For more details, see the entry on the term in the Migration Data Portal.
⇢ see also: Asylum; Asylum seeker, Migrant, Migration
References and further reading:
The International Organization for Migration. 2021. “Forced Migration or Displacement.” Migration Data Portal. URL: https://www.migrationdataportal.org/themes/forced-migration-or-displacement.
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[MM]
|
Freedom of movement
|
In international migration literature, freedom of movement refers to an individual’s right to freely leave (and return to) a country and enter another country under some kind of bilateral or multilateral agreement (as in the ECOWAS or the EU). According to Article 2(5) of the Schengen Borders Code, EU citizens and legally resident third-country nationals – i.e., nationals of a country which is not a member state of the EU (see the EMN Glossary; entry on “third country”) – enjoy the right to move freely across boundaries of European Member States and to reside in other EU Member States than their home country or country of legal residence (see also the EMN Glossary; entry on “right to free movement”). In the framework of the ECOWAS Protocol, freedom of movement refers to a person’s ability to move within a specific territory as he or she has the right to leave a country while maintaining the right to return to this country. Senegalese migrants, for example, often travel to Libya via Niger, an ECOWAS member country, hoping to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.
⇢ see also: Migration, Mobility
References and further reading:
Journal Officiel de la CEDEAO. 1979. Protocole sur la libre circulation, le droit de résidence et d’établissement, zone Cedeao. URL: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/39769/114931/F1913314371/O RG-39769.pdf.
European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. 2016. “Regulation (EU) 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 March 2016 on a Union Code on the Rules Governing the Movement of Persons across Borders (Schengen Borders Code) (Codification).” In Official Journal of the European Union L77/11. URL: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0399.
Category: D
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[AT / MM]
|
Human trafficking
|
The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, published by the United Nations in 2000, defines human trafficking or “trafficking in persons” as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.” (Article 3, § (a)). For more details see also the entry on human trafficking in the Migration Data Portal.
⇢ see also: Trafficker
References and further reading:
United Nations. 2000. “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.” United Nations. URL: https://www.unodc.org/documents/treaties/Special/2000_Protocol_to_Prevent_2C_Suppress_and_Punish_Trafficking_in_Persons.pdf.
The International Organization for Migration. 2021. “Human Trafficking.” Migration Data Portal. URL: https://www.migrationdataportal.org/themes/human-trafficking.
Category: D
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[MM]
|
Irregular migration
|
According to the European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary the term irregular migration refers to the “movement of persons to a new place of residence or transit that takes place outside the regulatory norms of the sending, transit and receiving countries.” It is important to note, however, that there is no common understanding of the term; rather, the meaning of “irregular” depends strongly on contextual factors such as the different perspectives of destination and sending countries. In a Senegalese context, for example, potential candidates for irregular migration are often impoverished members of the rural population who move to urban centers, where they first work in the informal sector and then try to escape to Europe (Tandian and Tall 2010).
⇢ see also: Illegal entry, Migration
References and further reading:
European Commission. 2020. European Migration Network (EMN) Glossary. URL: https://ec.europa.eu/homeaffairs/what-we-do/networks/european_migration_network/glossary_en.
Tandian, Aly, and Serigne Mansour Tall. 2010. Regards sur la migration irrégulière des Sénégalais : vouloir faire fortune en Europe avec des pirogues de fortune [Technical Report, Migration Policy Centre]. CARIM Analytic and Synthetic Notes 2010/50. URL: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/14405.
Category: D
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[CG / RS]
|
Refugee
|
According to the 1951 Convention and Protocol relating to the status of refugees provided by the United Nations, “[a] refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence” and who “has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group” (see also UNHCR 2021b). Such forcefully displaced migrants “are defined and protected in international law and must not be expelled or returned to situations where their life and freedom are at risk” (UNHCR 2021, n. p.). Refugees do not leave their home country of their own accord but because they have no other choice (Goubin et al. 2022, 7).
⇢ see also Asylum; Asylum seeker, Expatriate, Forced migration or displacement, Labor migration, Migrant
References and further reading:
Goubin, Silke, Anna Ruelens, and Ides Nicaise. 2022. “Trends in Attitudes towards Migration in Europe: A Comparative Analysis.” KU Leuven, HIVA – Research Institute for Work and Society. [Working paper of the OPPORTUNITIES project 101004945 – H2020].
United Nations. 1951. Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees. http://www.unhcr.org/protection/basic/3b66c2aa10/convention-protocolrelating-status-refugees.html. Date of access: September 10, 2023.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 2021a. “Refugees.” UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency. URL: https://www.unhcr.org/refugees.html. Date of access: August 24, 2021.
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). 2021b. “What Is a Refugee?” UNHCR: The UN Refugee Agency. URL: https://www.unhcr.org/uk/what-is-a-refugee.html. Date of access: August 24, 2021.
Category: D, E
Work Package: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
[SG / SM]
|
