Introduction of: Migrations: Governance, Policies, and Rights

Abstract

Migration policies are not only relevant per se but are also a proxy to reveal the strength of our democratic institutions. They tell us whether our democracies are functioning well or harboring harmful elements and showing authoritarian and anti-democratic pathologies. Academic institutions, schools, and civil society are the guardians of any democratic system, and it is therefore within our institutions that democracy is built, maintained and if necessary, capable of resisting against anti-democratic drifts. However, if it is in the name of protecting the vulnerable from violence and exploitation that democratic communities have built institutions for the care and protection of human beings, by adopting restrictive migration policies that resort to legal devices, which subsequently produce irregular migration, democratic countries do nothing but violate that very role.