REDEFINING FORCED MIGRATION USING HUMAN RIGHTS

Do sending and receiving states have an obligation to address the fundamental causes of unauthorized migration? Inherent in the concept of forced migration is an obliga- tion on sending and receiving states to assist people displaced by factors beyond their control. An expanded definition of forced migration would allow the inclusion of eco- nomic migrants, supplying the moral and legal justification for international cooperation on the reduction of the need to migrate. An assessment of the causes of economic migra- tion as human rights violations could serve as the basis for the new definition. Mexico- U.S. migration, one of the largest binational streams of migration in the world, serves as the case study.