The Rights of Aliens: Legal Regimes and Historical Perspectives

Abstract

Human beings, even nomads, have always lived in communities – extremely few humans can thrive in isolation. When a group of people moves from one territory to another, that is called migration, the new arrivals are immigrants, and they are also aliens in that land until they achieve citizenship either by permission or by conquest. Over the centuries, the law relating to the rights of aliens has proven to be one of the most significant and controversial topics of international law. The body of law relates to at least two broad issues: What are the rights of aliens to enter a foreign territory? What are the rights of aliens once they have entered a foreign territory, either legally or illegally? The first task of this chapter is to set out the basic legal parameters under which migration has occurred and will likely occur in the near future. By what law is migration governed? By what rules does it even make sense to speak of “illegal immigrants?” Then we will take a look at some of the historical approaches to the law and policy of migration.

Keywords: migration, refugee, asylum, citizenship

JEL Classification: K33, K42