Immigration Article of the Day: External and Internal Migration by M. Isabel Medina

External and Internal Migration by M. Isabel Medina, 33 Southern California Journal of Law and Social Justice, issue 3, forthcoming April 2024

Abstract

Migration is an external and internal phenomenon. Persons move across international borders and internally across state borders or vast distances in search of a better life or because life in their place of residence has become untenable and unsustainable. Increasingly, climate change and other related disasters or environmental conditions will cause greater internal and external migration. Still, actual presentation of refugees at the border has yielded a conversation about how receiving states like the United States treat refugees that has exacerbated tensions and hostility towards migrants. This piece considers external and internal migration to frustrate the perpetuation of refugee myths and stereotypes; to expose the frailty of the concept of citizenship as a source of protection for persons; and to promote humane adaptive responses to refugees, whether they are internal or external.

KJ