The Right Not to Stay

A central question in the debate on justice in immigration is whether immigrants have a right to stay; this book argues that liberal-democratic receiving states should also grant migrants a right not to stay. This claim runs against the presumption that migrants always desire to move on a permanent basis and intend to forge a completely new life in the country of destination. From this perspective, temporary migration is always a second-best option for migrants, engendered by the closed and often punitive migration policies of receiving countries. This book's innovative focus on the right not to stay is prompted instead by the realization that increasing numbers of migrants throughout the world conceive and plan their migratory experience as circumscribed in time and instrumental to goals and projects that they will pursue once back in their country of origin. These temporary migration projects are worthy of being accommodated by the receiving states as much as the migratory plans of those who resolve or aim to immigrate on a permanent basis.