Patrick Weil - The right of asylum

Patrick Weil, Professor at Yale Law School and Senior Research Fellow at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, discusses migration.

About Patrick Weil

"I’m a Research Professor at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and a visiting scholar in law at Yale Law School.

In my work I have often explored the issues of citizenship and immigration laws and policies."

The right to exit, not to enter

Nationality is the right to claim a place in the world where you can have your home, where even if you have lived abroad for 30 years, you can come back in case of a big crisis. It’s a place where the State owes you protection and gives you rights based on your nationality. Among the rights that have been proclaimed in 1948 by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was the right to exit your country – but the right to exit your country doesn’t mean the right to enter another one. It is in this loophole that we must consider the question of refugees and immigrants.

Is there a right to enter a country where you are a foreigner? Since the Second World War, many countries have developed, often through court rulings, rights that are proclaimed by the government. For example, if you marry a foreigner, often it is decreed by the State that you can bring your spouse to your country. So that is one category of foreigners that have the right to move abroad, to live with the spouse who has the nationality of the country of entry. When an immigrant has been legally admitted into a country, has a right of residence, often the court also guarantees, under certain conditions of housing and resources, the right for his or her family to immigrate and join the person. So, there is a right to a family life that is recognised, for example, under the European Commission of Human Rights.

Key Points

• The Geneva Convention recognises the right to apply for asylum but not the right to be admitted into another territory.
• People migrate due to a lack of opportunities, lack of rights, global warming and war, among other reasons.
• Dialogue is key to convincing people to accept migrants.