Towards a Human Rights-Based Paradigm of Integration? Assessing the Contribution of International Human Rights Law

Summary of talk

An increasing focus within European states on laws and policies for the integration of migrants has been evident in recent years, with 'integration' increasingly conceptualised by states as a mandatory process, a tool of immigration control and a means of regulating access to citizenship.  This talk will not focus on these developments; rather, it will assess the concept of integration from the perspective of international law by exploring the development of the concept in the concluding observations of selected UN human rights treaty monitoring bodies. Although this development is in the early stages and fragmented between the different bodies, an emerging paradigm of integration as the progressive realisation of equality for migrants can be identified, particularly in the work of the CERD Committee. It will be argued that this evolving paradigm provides a real alternative to the way in which “civic integration” is often framed at the national level as a process of cultural assimilation, and could form the basis for a human rights-based approach to migrant integration.

Speaker's biography

Clíodhna is a lecturer in the School of Law and Government. She lectures primarily in the area of Company Law. Prior to joining DCU in September 2012, Clíodhna was a post-doctoral fellow in UCC, working on an Irish Research Council-funded Senior Fellowship Project entitled "Migrant Domestic Workers and EU Migration Law Regimes; exploring the limits of human rights protections". She has lectured in International Human Rights Law in Trinity College Dublin and has also taught classes in Public International Law on the China-EU School of Law Masters Programme (University of Beijing) and in the School of International Affairs masters programme at Sciences Po, Paris.

Wine and light refreshments will be provided. The talk will run from 17:30 to 18:30.