Beyond Migrants and Refugees: A Model International Mobility Convention

In this lecture, Michael W. Doyle presents the Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC). After nearly two years of study and debate convened by the Columbia Global Policy Initiative’s International Migration Project, the MIMC represents a consensus among over 40 academics and policymakers in the fields of migration, human rights, national security, labor economics, and refugee law. The MIMC provides a holistic and rights-based approach to international mobility that integrates the various regimes that seek to govern people on the move. In addition, it fills key gaps in international law that leave many people unprotected by establishing the minimum rights afforded to all people who cross state borders and defines their relationships to their communities of destination, origin, and transit.

Michael W. Doyle is a University Professor of Columbia University and former director of the Columbia Global Policy Initiative. His research interests include international migration, international relations theory, international law, international peace-building and the United Nations.