The Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) proposes a better system for migration and mobility by addressing gaps in existing international law. It offers a comprehensive set of rules, outlining actions, rights, and duties that benefit both migrants and refugees as well as their states of origin, transit, and destination.
Overview
International mobility—the movement of individuals across borders for any length of time, such as visitors, students, tourists, labor migrants, entrepreneurs, long-term residents, forced migrants, refugees, victims of trafficking, people caught in countries in crisis, and family members—has no common definition or legal framework.
The Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) creates, for the first time, a holistic and cumulative framework to cover different categories of mobile people. It proposes a framework for international human mobility with goals of reaffirming their existing rights, while also expanding those rights where warranted.
Seeking to better protect the rights of all persons crossing international borders, the MIMC covers a broad spectrum of migrants and unpacks a range of migrant rights. By demonstrating what a better international mobility regime could look like, it hopes to take away undue concerns, assure uneasy publics, and inspire action.
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Model International Mobility Declaration
In 165 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.
Development of the MIMC
The Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC) was developed by an International Mobility Commission at meetings organized by the Columbia Global Policy Initiative. It involved over forty eminent academic and policy experts in the fields of migration, human rights, national security, labor economics, and refugee law. The Commission came together to debate and develop the MIMC in workshops conducted regularly from early 2015 through April 2017. The MIMC is the outcome of this collaborative effort to produce a comprehensive and greatly needed international legal framework for human mobility. Through extensive deliberation, the Commission developed a coherent and equitable Model Convention
Having published the Convention, MIMC 1.0, in 2018, the next step in the development of the Convention was a meeting hosted in the University of Pennsylvania’s Perry World House in February 2019. The workshop produced the Model International Mobility Declaration (or MIMC 2.0), a summary version of MIMC 1.0. Continuing the promotion and progressive development of the Convention, the MIMC project joined Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs as an Impact Initiative.
Thematic Areas of Inquiry for MIMC 3.0
Climate-induced Mobility
With climate change disproportionately affecting people in vulnerable situations, migration due to climate and weather-related events will continue to increase in the coming decades. What are some ways that governments and international institutions can help these displaced populations? Are there legal pathways for people displaced due to climate change?
For more on this issue:
A Reflection on Climate Mobility: Has Causality Lost Resonance? by Mehreen Afzal
"Forced Migrants," Human Rights, and "Climate Refugees" by Michael Doyle
Pandemic-induced Mobility
As the COVID-19 pandemic showed, diseases and viruses can have destabilizing effects on societies and increase migration, especially among the most vulnerable populations. How can governments and international institutions be better prepared for the next pandemic? Should migrants moving because of a pandemic have a different type of legal status?
Digital Commuting/Digital Nomads
With the ubiquity of Internet-enabled devices and WifI across many nations and societies, people can now live in one nation and virtually work in another. What are the global implications of digital border-hopping? How will this affect migration in the coming decades?
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Featured MIMC Podcasts, Events, & Articles
Insights from our Senior Fellows & Advisory Board
MAY 3, 2024 • Article
MIMC at the Conference on International Migration
The Model International Mobility Convention attended the Conference on International Migration at St. Francis College, sharing a global perspective on current trends in human mobility.
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 ...
MIMC Team & Advisory Board
Michael W. Doyle
Carnegie Council Senior Fellow, Model International Mobility Convention (MIMC); Former Carnegie Council Trustee; Columbia University
FEB 3, 2023 • Article
"Forced Migrants," Human Rights, and "Climate Refugees"
Senior Fellow Michael Doyle explores arguments for assistance and asylum that those who are driven by climate to cross international borders can and should claim.
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 ...