Migration and justice in the era of sustainable development goals: a conceptual framework

Abstract

Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and pathways of migrations vary, as do perceptions of migration. Political debates are often organised normatively: the debate on the sustainable development goals presents migration foremost as a development issue resulting from global inequalities. The problems faced by particular migrants, and what a more sustainable approach to migration would look like are, therefore, often lost in political debates. We aim to address those gaps: the article conceptualizes, based on established academic debates, how sustainability in migration can be addressed systematically, which aspects are important for a more sustainable migration process and which trade-offs and injustices exist from several perspectives. We create a conceptual framework of sustainability in migration processes, building on the concepts of inter- and intragenerational justice, commonly accepted as the core of the sustainability concept. We apply this conceptual framework to empirical findings on labour migration and multilocality in Kyrgyzstan. The case enables consideration of the nested system effects of scale and translocality. This research is novel because it bridges the divided literature on migration, justice and sustainability, integrates theoretical and empirical insights and provokes a debate on which kind of migration we want to achieve.