What Do Borders and Human Rights Mean for Migrants? 

Principal Researcher in Kobe University
Tetsu SAKURAI
(Professor, Graduate School of Intercultural Studies, Kobe University)

Principal Researcher in the Oversea Partner University
Kolja RAUBE
(Senior Researcher, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, University of Leuven)

Contemporary advanced countries in Europe, for example, are confronted with a dilemma between the widely held values of basic human rights and the principle of national sovereignty. On the one hand, after the Second World War, it has become more and more imperative to locate the source and legitimacy of rights in the transnational, universalized order. On the other hand, the huge influx of immigrants into the EU in these years has impressed on us an unwaning significance of national borders. We hope to explore the meanings and possible exits of this serious dilemma in this subgroup. We plan to exchange views on these problems that contemporary liberal democracies are facing and find a solution that we hope will satisfy many of the parties involved.