Is there a human right to immigrate? A critic of the argument of logical continuity

Abstract

Through cantilever argument or logical continuity, Carens argues that the same reasons that support to recognize as a human right the freedom of movement within borders justify a similar protection for the freedom to move across them. This article attempt to deepen the criticisms that most seriously question this thesis: the vision of freedom of movement as a right not linked to personality but to citizenship, its consideration of freedom of movement as a means to access solely an adequate range of life options, the argument of the priority of domestic egalitarian justice versus international mobility to satisfy non-vital preferences and the conception of ius migrandi as a right of «fugue». From the examination of these critical arguments and, as with the backdrop of the controversy between the ethical and political conceptions of human rights, I will present my own conclusions about the existence or not of a human right to international mobility.