Formulating new rules for migration and asylum
People are as mobile as ever, but their movement across borders lacks global regulation. This leaves many refugees in protracted displacement and many migrants unprotected in irregular and dire situations.
Meanwhile, some states have become concerned that their borders have become irrelevant. International mobility—the movement of individuals across borders for any length of time as visitors, students, tourists, labor migrants, entrepreneurs, long-term residents, asylum seekers, or refugees—has no common definition or legal framework.
To address this key gap in international law, and the growing gaps in protection and responsibility that are leaving people vulnerable, the Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) proposes a framework for mobility with the goals of reaffirming the existing rights afforded to mobile people (and the corresponding rights and responsibilities of states) as well as expanding those basic rights where warranted.
Read the Convention
In 213 articles divided over eight chapters, the Convention establishes both the minimum rights afforded to all people who cross state borders as visitors, and the special rights afforded to tourists, students, migrant workers, investors, and residents, forced migrants, refugees, migrant victims of trafficking, and migrants caught in countries in crisis. Some of these categories are covered by existing international legal regimes. However, in this Convention these groups are for the first time brought together under a single framework. A visualization of the rights outlined in the MIMC can be found here.
The Convention was developed by a Commission of eminent academic and policy experts in the fields on migration, human rights, national security, labor economics, and refugee law. The Commission came together to debate and develop the Convention in workshops conducted regularly from spring 2015 until it was finalized in April 2017, and published by The Columbia Journal of Transnational Law in a Special Issue in January 2018.
Read Convention 1.0 | Read Convention 2.0 | Responsibility Sharing
Featured MIMC Podcasts, Events, & Articles
Insights from our Senior Fellows & Advisory Board
APR 21, 2022 • Podcast
Global Ethics Review: Ukrainian Refugees & the International Response, with Michael W. Doyle
APR 27, 2021 • Podcast
Global Ethics Review: The Model International Mobility Convention 2.0, with Michael Doyle
How can we make migration more ethical? Columbia University's Professor Michael Doyle, also a senior fellow at Carnegie Council, discusses the Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC), which is focused on creating "a better set of rules for the movement of people across borders." Doyle and host Alex Woodson also touch ...
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MIMC Leadership & Advisory Board
Michael W. Doyle
Carnegie Council Senior Fellow, Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC); Former Carnegie Council Trustee; Columbia University
Dorothea Koehn
Research Fellow, Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC); Columbia SIPA
DEC 15, 2022 • Article
Revising MIMC: Finding Solutions to the Challenges of Today's Migration
On October 13-14, 2022, the Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC), Carnegie Council’s migration impact initiative, convened a workshop to find solutions to the most pressing ...
DEC 15, 2022 • Article
Family Reunification: Domestic and Human Rights Regional Courts Perspective
Domestic and regional courts have a relevant role not only in applying international law but also in developing it. This paper aims to critically analyze ...
JUN 8, 2022 • Article
Ethics & Artificial Intelligence: Migration
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine leading to Europe's worst refugee crisis since World War II, this article from researchers Gustavo Macedo and Lutiana Barbosa details ...
APR 21, 2022 • Podcast
Global Ethics Review: Ukrainian Refugees & the International Response, with Michael W. Doyle
Since the Russian invasion began in late February, millions of Ukrainians have been forced to flee their homes. In this Global Ethics Review podcast, Senior ...
JUN 20, 2021 • Article
The World's Refugee System Needs to be Made Responsible
Today, we are faced with an unfair and ultimately unsustainable refugee system that simultaneously increases human suffering while placing the burden of hosting refugees on ...
APR 27, 2021 • Podcast
Global Ethics Review: The Model International Mobility Convention 2.0, with Michael Doyle
How can we make migration more ethical? Columbia University's Professor Michael Doyle, also a senior fellow at Carnegie Council, discusses the Model International Mobility Convention (...
SEP 4, 2019 • Podcast
The Model International Mobility Convention, with Michael Doyle
In this timely talk, SIPA's Professor Michael Doyle details the Model International Mobility Convention, a "hypothetical ideal convention" developed to define a "comprehensive and coherent" ...