- definitions
- brief description of the key concept
- examples and/or illustrations
- other useful sources
- bibliography
Armand De Mestral and Jan Winter, Professor and Acting Director of the Political Science Department at McGill University, provide the following definition of mobility in the article, “Mobility Rights in the European Union and Canada,” “In Canada mobility rights have been traditionally understood as a function of the law governing provincial legislative competence over business, professions, and services, and the interrelationship between these powers and federal jurisdiction. Since 1982, however, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms has enshrined a right to mobility in its section 6, which the authors examine to identify the provision’s underlying objectives. Within the EU, in contrast, mobility is principally a right exercised by employees and employers to seek and give work, paralleled by the right of establishment of professional workers and the broader theme of the free movement of services. Through treaty amendment, legislation, jurisprudential change, and most recently, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, EC law has expanded the meaning of mobility, resulting in a paradigm shift from the rights of workers to the rights, more generally, of persons, and latterly, of citizens”
Armand De Mestral and Jan Winter, “Mobility Rights in the European Union and Canada,” McGill Law Journal (2001) 45.
Brief Description of the Key Concept
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute defines mobility as being “driven by diverse factors including conflict and instability, environmental degradation and climate change, poverty, marginalization and poor governance. These drivers co-exist with a number of conditions and enabling factors that determine where and how individuals chose to move.”
SIPRI, Mobility and Migration, https://www.sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/prosperity-and-peace/mobility- and-migration. (accessed October 16, 2018).
According to the United Nations IOM and UNDESCA report on Human Migration and Mobility, mobility is defined as “often linked to the notion of globalization in broad terms. They include factors as diverse as international patterns of demand for and supply of labour; the relative cheapness of international transport; the advent of systems of electronic communication; and the emergence of transnational family networks…They are related to social, economic and demographic inequalities, whether experienced in terms of employment opportunities, resources, education or human rights”
United Nations IOM and UNDESA, “Migration and Human Mobility,” (2012), p. 3. http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Think%20Pieces/13_migration.pdf. (accessed October 17, 2018).
Armando Montanari, for the Belgian Journal of Geography, states mobility “make[s] reference to movements rather than the groups that made them and the places where they occurred… The mirror of structural change in post-industrial society in which the differences between the various activities are less well-defined… Sustained by the widening of the gap in the growth rate between developed and under-developed countries.
Armando Montanari, “Human Mobility, Global Change and Local Development,” Belgian Journal of Geography (2005), pp. 1, 6.
Globalization as a catalyst: Human mobility saw a significant growth from the end of the twentieth century to the beginning of the twenty-first century as a result of globalisation. Globalisation has resulted in political, technological and economic repercussions. Politically, human mobility and globalisation has caused international flows and reduction of barriers, causing new macro-economic bodies and new financial, trade, and human flows. The flows to adapt to globalization can be permanent or temporary, planned or undesired, and stimulate or impact labour markets.
Armando Montanari, “Human Mobility, Global Change and Local Development,” Belgian Journal of Geography (2005), p. 2.
The importance of mobility and migration studies: Contemporary studies of mobility assess reasons for travel and possible violence which accompanies the reason for displacement. The study of mobility is vital in managing refugee crises, as refugees are not travellers in the typical sense of studies of human mobility. Refugees must be assessed separate from other travellers or migrants, as their mobility can be attributed to strife or state insecurities. Migrant flows are typically larger scale, attributed to the structural violence of poverty and discrimination, or the pursuance of opportunities for income, education, or better standard of living. Refugees can no longer avail themselves of protection by their home state, and mobility can be impacted or even forced.
Peteet, Julie M. Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2005), p. 24.
The connection between mobility and refugees: Mobility of migrants and refugees, similarly, impact host countries, and therefore this study of mobility is necessary to ensure basic necessities and opportunities are provided for, as weaker economics cannot support such large-scale mobility of migrants and refugees. Seeing that refugee response regimes call for an international and national response, the mobility of refugees and their cause for displacement and ability to move freely from the original state to another state is necessary to asses.
Peteet, Julie M. Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2005), p. 25.
The “containers” impacting mobility: Transnational migratory circuits, and the influence of external forces, structural constraints, and human agency, place “containers” on human mobility, that are “politicized, culturally relative, historically specific, local, and multiple constructions.
Peteet, Julie M. Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2005), p. 27.
Mobility Rights s.6, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: The Charter outlines the rights of Canadian citizens and residents regarding the ability to move within Canada and to other countries.
“6. (1) Every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada.
(2) Every citizen of Canada and every person who has the status of a permanent resident of Canada has the right
(a) to move to and take up residence in any province; and
(b) to pursue the gaining of a livelihood in any province”
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, c 11, section 6.
Ihring, Diana. “Human Mobility as a Resource in Conflict: The Case of Syria.” Refugee Studies Centre. April 01, 2016.
https://www.rsc.ox.ac.uk/publications/human-mobility-as-a-resource-in-conflict-the-case- of-syria. (accessed October 17, 2018)
Balogun, Saliu Adejumobi, and Aravinda Meera Guntupalli. “Gender difference in the prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of mobility disability among older adults in Nigeria.” European Journal of Ageing 13, no. 3 (2016): 231-239.
Klugman, Jeni, Human Development Report 2009.” Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development” (October 5, 2009). UNDP-HDRO Human Development Reports, 2009. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2294688.
Afifi, Tamer, Rdha Govil, Patrick Sakdapolrak and Koko Warner, “Climate Change, Vulnerability, and Human Mobility: Perspectives of Refugees from the East and the Horn of Africa.” UNHCR, published by United Nations University, Institute for Environment and Human Security, No.1. June 2012.
Armando Montanari, “Human Mobility, Global Change and Local Development,” Belgian Journal of Geography (2005).
Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, s 2, Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982, c 11.
De Mestral, Armand and Jan Winter, “Mobility Rights in the European Union and Canada,” McGill Law Journal (2001).
Peteet, Julie M. Landscape of Hope and Despair: Palestinian Refugee Camps. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press (2005).
SIPRI, “Mobility and Migration.” https://www.sipri.org/research/peace-and-development/prosperity-and-peace/mobility-and-migration. (accessed October 16, 2018)
United Nations IOM and UNDESA, “Migration and Human Mobility,” (2012). http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/pdf/Think%20Pieces/13_migration.pdf. (accessed October 17, 2018)