A Measure of Voluntariness in Migration

The notion of voluntariness has important implications for normative discussions on migration. Nonvoluntary migrants are said to have stronger claims against the host country to be allowed to enter and stay, because saying that a person is a nonvoluntary migrant implies that her choice of migration was not genuinely a product of her own will. By contrast, voluntary migration is perceived as a mere preference, and voluntary migrants are therefore said to have weaker claims against the host country (Ottonelli and Torresi 2022, 65–69; Bartram 2015, 439–441; Straehle 2023; Bloch and Dona 2018, 10–11). If the voluntariness of migrants has significant normative implications, the degree of voluntariness in migration ought also to affect, even if not entirely determining, the entitlements of migrants, and the obligations host countries have towards them. This makes measuring the voluntariness of migrants essential for fairly determining their entitlements and the obligations of host countries. For example, the United States Supreme Court explicitly uses probabilistic assessments when evaluating refugee claims, as it holds that a well-founded fear requires a 10% probability of persecution (INS v. Cardoza-Fonseca 1987). This reliance on probability in legal decisions suggests that developing a metric to measure a migrant's voluntariness could help create more appropriate migration policies. Do the two major accounts of voluntariness in the migration literature allow for a metric to measure voluntariness of migrants? According to the agential account, a person's migration is voluntary to the extent that she exercises her agency in bringing about her migration (Richmond 1993; Van Hear et al. 2018, 3–4). This means that voluntariness in migration is a matter of degree because all cases of migration are “mixed” in the sense that they involve some degree of agency (Van Hear et al. 2009; Linde 2011; Vullnetari 2012). However, the agential account fails to imply any method of measuring voluntariness, and therefore fails to identify relevant differences between migrants in terms of their degrees of voluntariness. According to the motivational account, migration is non-voluntary if and only if it is motivated by the agent's belief that she lacks any objectively acceptable alternative to migration (Ottonelli and Torresi 2013, 2016, 2023). This seems to imply that migration is either voluntary or nonvoluntary. But perceiving voluntariness as binary is unsatisfactory as it similarly prevents us from seeing relevant differences between migrants in terms of their degrees of voluntariness. I develop a way to gauge the voluntariness of migration. This necessarily involves paying some attention to the concept of voluntariness. However, I limit myself to developing an account of voluntariness specifically relevant to migration, drawing on previous work on the motivational account. In Section 2, I reject the agential account on the grounds that it is not amenable to measuring the varying degrees of voluntariness among migrants. In Section 3, I engage with an internal debate within the motivational account, as developed by Serena Olsaretti, Valeria Ottonelli and Tiziana Torresi. Olsaretti has primarily focused on distinguishing the concept of voluntariness from those of freedom and coercion, implicitly treating voluntariness as a binary property. Ottonelli and Torresi have applied this account to migration by outlining four necessary conditions for voluntariness, while also arguing that voluntariness is binary. In Section 4, I argue that voluntariness in migration, on the motivational account, is a matter of degree and I illustrate its application, particularly in legal deliberations concerning migrants' status. There are two major accounts of voluntariness used in the migration literature: agential and motivational. First, consider the agential account, according to which a case of migration is voluntary to the extent that the agent exercises her agency in bringing it about. Migrants are not classified as voluntary or non-voluntary, because all cases of migration are “mixed” in terms of voluntariness. That is, all cases of migration involve some degree of agency and some degree of forcedness (Richmond 1993; Van Hear et al. 2018). Voluntariness here is a matter of where the causal sources of an action lie: the more an action is brought about by the agent herself, the more voluntary it is, and the more it is brought about by external factors—whether other agents or natural events—the more “forced” it is. Consider the cases of Dragan, a Serbian gay man who migrated to Germany to avoid gender-based discrimination, and Fatima, a Yazidi Iraqi woman who migrated to Türkiye to escape enslavement by ISIS. On the agential account, both migrations are partially voluntary as both cases involve some degree of agency (e.g., both Dragan and Fatima exercised their agency by deciding to leave their countries and then actually leaving them under their own steam) and some degree of forcedness (e.g., Dragan was discriminated against by his society and Fatima was threatened by ISIS; without these discriminations and threats, both persons have to in their own these consider the used of a according to to some if and only if it was necessary for the of a of conditions that was for the of the In conditions necessary of a for his migration to for example, to as a gay his for in conditions necessary of a for her migration to for example, belief according to which Yazidi are the of to for enslavement and In other conditions the and therefore are of the According to the agential account, both cases are partially voluntary in of was to the agent's own (e.g., not to his to and partially nonvoluntary because was to the external specifically to the of (e.g., of migration voluntary However, the agential account lacks any method for measuring voluntariness, and therefore it is of of the voluntariness in these two any metric to migrants' voluntariness, the agential account between migration Consider the between escape from migration to avoid discrimination, a to in of and a from to for The agential account these migrations as “mixed” and to measure their degrees of voluntariness. This the account for a of voluntariness in migration. I to be that I have not any of the agential account who uses the or any other of I the because I it the way to the agential account. The that voluntariness is not binary is a even when in terms of the the account fails to allow us to gauge degrees of voluntariness. be to the causal of agents to a as a person's to discussions of causal and 2009; If could the of agency to other causal in a be to a metric of and of a metric as a measure of voluntariness on the agential account. on this or of the agential account, I not to it as of voluntariness in this because a causal measure of not by voluntariness, in the of migration. an account of voluntariness us not only the agent an the be to her in of her and in the of migration, for a person not to be her migration was by the external on that and are both in and are to external to their to to avoid and the of not have because has to not have migrated migration is non-voluntary, is their migrations in their degree of voluntariness. this is the that in bringing about the to In both the agent's is by his own will. The in the of in to an as objectively in of an causal account of agency is to this By on causal it to avoid and to as they are in terms of their degree of causal an account therefore a notion of voluntariness that is to migration as it the that in assessments of migration is voluntary is an that is not motivated by a person's belief that all are Voluntariness has both and First, voluntariness is because the of an of a person's of that an is not that the agent not it or that the agent it as it means that the not the agent's Consider a where a person has two objectively acceptable a and If she as for her it and her choice voluntary from an This holds even if she her was nonvoluntary. voluntariness is in to as the agent's action be motivated by her or belief that she lacks any acceptable Consider a where a person has two objectively acceptable and If she is and as a her choice is an her of this and her on this belief the choice of nonvoluntary. Voluntariness is in this sense because her belief her choice because her belief is that her choice was not voluntary freedom is of voluntariness is not 2013, person is to if and only if she is not from by other and who lacks an acceptable alternative to migration is to if she is not by from leaving and not to if she is not by from That is, freedom is not for voluntariness, and not necessarily voluntariness that I in the agential account, as on causal and a method for measuring degrees of voluntariness. If the motivational account the agent's and could not the agential account be similarly to develop a method to measure the degree of migrants' is that an of the agential account could voluntariness by and its causal The relevant and belief in this could be and of acceptable to migration. If the agential account to this of and the between the agential and motivational accounts could this is the agential account acceptable in this only by is essential to the motivational account. In that a to the it that of the by the motivational account are for voluntariness. For this I on the that the motivational account, as developed by Olsaretti, the for voluntariness in migration. migration is a a person's from country to country and in for a of where the the relevant action that about her leaving and when she her in and to or a in any country other are First, this only migration, on cases and cases of internal migration. the relevant action is For when a person the country her relevant action under is while the are from while I consider the of migration to argue that it with either and the of migration not that voluntariness in migration in and method of be to migration countries. these as while them as a with For the of I on in the of If in could have This means that not have any acceptable alternative in avoid to on in if to could have This means that not have any acceptable alternative to in avoid in in and a on to on the of her relevant she acceptable in a the of she an and in in she to she could have This means that she not have any acceptable alternative to in avoid her in she in and a on The is migration is nonvoluntary if it is motivated by that be for his and to to avoid to her in avoid she in to in and to in motivated by their that they by the their migrations The is migration is nonvoluntary if it is motivated by belief that the are in the sense of an of alternative to or alternative to in was which was an that their migrations motivated by their that they be in their migrations The is migration is nonvoluntary if it on it is the case that if migrants the they have to (Ottonelli and Torresi Ottonelli and Torresi not the relevant However, to with their other they consider the relevant to in to acceptable Consider this has acceptable in and is of them. However, that and that allow to a to only to his on about the that acceptable in and his to was not motivated by a belief that acceptable in his migration was motivated by the any or that about their acceptable to migration. The is in the cases of and because their migrations not motivated by any their migrations non-voluntary because all four conditions is necessary for a migration to be a migration could the be non-voluntary if it fails to of the other The is According to Ottonelli and makes a voluntary is not the of the the in which the choice to enter that is also the of to in that (Ottonelli and Torresi 2013, Ottonelli and Torresi to on without explicitly the agent's to that when it is or for to their in the host and their are This implies that the mere of an a migration non-voluntary, of the agent's are motivated by this However, this is with Ottonelli and account of voluntariness in migration. the is a of the the to the agent's to the the migration in the host that the the agent's about her acceptable the similarly consider the agent's in voluntariness. a more of the when a person's to in the host country is motivated by her belief that she lacks an she is a non-voluntary that and to the significant probability of to to the of probability decisions to in motivated by this of an their migrations However, if to in because she the mere of an not have her migration This of the with the motivational account as it that both the of acceptable and the migrant's these are necessary in determining the voluntariness of migration. I argue that Ottonelli and four conditions be as of concept of voluntariness. This is not a matter of these an of the between these conditions and account. action that to any of these four conditions also as non-voluntary under In Ottonelli and Torresi their by as the other conditions are also in account. The of drawing between these accounts is as it that these are not accounts of voluntariness. they the account, with Ottonelli and four conditions a more of account when applied specifically to migration. The of voluntary migration was According to Ottonelli and account, both and migrations non-voluntary to by the was both to leave and to in from the while only to in account as that in was an alternative to migration. in was to to the of in his migration was non-voluntary as it was motivated by a of acceptable case her to in was an in she was in while her was her migration as a This of the with of voluntariness as The of voluntary migration was person according to Ottonelli and when she not have migrated she her acceptable account with this as it that an is non-voluntary if and only if it is motivated by the agent's belief that she lacks an acceptable with these by In Olsaretti that if a person's migration is by about her acceptable and she not have migrated she her migration was In the cases of and the is as their migrations motivated by their of the they in According to Ottonelli and while the cases of and the migration was non-voluntary from the while non-voluntary in her as migration the other from both migrations from the and in her their decisions motivated by their their that they acceptable This of the with The was the of The be as the applied to a and as it is implicitly account of voluntariness. that and means they acceptable alternative to in According to account, and migrations non-voluntary as they motivated by their that they acceptable alternative to in the also with of voluntariness. Ottonelli and account of voluntariness in migration be as a and of account of voluntariness. The in that when the account to the of migration. 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Cardoza-Fonseca If a man from a has a well-founded fear of persecution The Court that even a 10% probability of persecution be to a well-founded have this 10% in cases by that a of persecution a well-founded also v. migrants' voluntariness could therefore help create more by legal that on avoid and as or for But this not that they not on probabilistic Consider of who are refugee or the host countries in and for example, for from from 10% in to in for from they from in to in for those from they from in Germany to in for those from from in Germany to in and for those from from in to in for differences are by the of and important of in as a well-founded fear of as to this while are implicitly probabilistic to more and cases to mere with the legal terms used to the two for treating voluntariness in migration as a matter of the in determining to measure I that to a person's migration and a method us to in a person's her migration and be this not necessarily that measuring a migrant's voluntariness is I and a of In the case of of migration, as This a of the even the could be and in in and are and as for the of In the case of also from an of allow for more I that of to measure a person's voluntariness in migration. 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First, they that treating voluntariness as a matter of degree us to of migration as and therefore to from on the between the of forcedness and the of voluntariness in migrants' (Ottonelli and Torresi This the agential account, which lacks a metric and all migrations as an to between varying degrees of voluntariness among migrants. However, this fails to because I also the motivational account. to Ottonelli and binary Ottonelli and Torresi argue that be as or voluntary on which in the migration (Ottonelli and Torresi this is it not that voluntariness in migration is a matter of a migrant's voluntariness, not on consider the migration and For evaluating only on her of migration an to the that her migration was However, this be an migration is an consider the voluntariness of her migration the The concept of voluntariness an important in normative discussions about migration. 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