Ambiguities in the Categories of Migration

This policy report considers the ambiguities of categories used in understanding and governing migration. It takes into account cases of migrants who might not clearly fall under existing migration-related categories and conventions; for instance, the experience of de facto statelessness or cases when one’s citizenship or identity in a particular state is not recognized. Examples include migrant workers and trafficked persons whose identity documents are confiscated, internal migrants within nationstates and those who fall ambiguously in-between the definitions for refugees and economic migrants. This report will examine how policy can better address the challenges faced by migrants who find it difficult to access their fundamental rights as a consequence of being ‘in limbo’. This will become an issue of increasing relevance as the forms and routes of migration diversify and grow ever more complex in the contemporary age of global interconnection.