GLOBAL MOBILITY REGIMES PROJECT
The Global Mobility Regimes project led by Rey Koslowski analyzes the economic, political, and security dimensions of global mobility as well as the governance of migration and mobility at the global level. While international migration refers to approximately 258 million people worldwide who have lived outside of their countries for more than one year, this project examines the movements of people across international borders for any length of time or purpose, including tourists, students, business people, seasonal migrant workers and commuters, whose numbers Koslowski estimates total well over two billion annually. The project frames international cooperation in terms of a set of interacting global mobility regimes: the established international refugee regime, a longstanding but somewhat latent international travel regime and a non-existent but potential international labor migration regime.
The Global Mobility Regimes project began shortly after the UN Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM) was established in December 2003, when Koslowski was asked to write a paper assessing possible steps that might be taken toward increasing international cooperation on migration and mobility for presentation at a June 2004 Stockholm workshop with GCIM Co-Chair Jan Karlsson and Director of Policy and Research, Jeff Crisp (who drafted the GCIM report). The paper was subsequently published in the Global Commission’s research paper series. Koslowski explained that the extent of international cooperation on migration at the global level has been very limited. There was no regime facilitating the international movement of labor similar to the international trade regime based on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). A labor migration regime has not developed because migration destination states have no reason join --- foreign labor is in abundant supply and can be obtained with bilateral agreements or simply by unilaterally opening labor markets to migrants when needed; international bargaining on labor migration is not conditioned by reciprocity, as with trade; and there is no comparable US hegemonic leadership on the issue of labor migration. Koslowski did, however, suggest that if cooperation on international labor migration could be linked to increasing cooperation on securing international travel maybe UN member states could negotiate a more all-encompassing General Agreement on Migration, Mobility and Security.
A grant from the MacArthur Foundation (2009-2011) supported Koslowski’s research on global mobility regimes and further development of his argument that widening the scope of analysis from migration to all movements of people across international borders expands the possibilities for identifying bargaining points that link issues and increase reciprocity, and, thereby, also increase the potential for international cooperation among states. The grant also enabled Koslowski to hire his then PhD student, Laura Gonzalez-Murphy, to work as a research assistant, hold two meetings and publish an edited volume. A small workshop at which participants formulated and presented tentative ideas for chapters was held at the German Marshall Fund in Washington, DC on Nov. 20-21, 2008. Chapter drafts were presented at a larger meeting that engaged the policymaking community as well as academics and was hosted by the SUNY Levin Institute (now SUNY Global Center) in New York City on April 27-28, 2009. Palgrave Macmillan published the edited volume Global Mobility Regimes in 2011.
Fourteen years after Koslowski's first paper on the subject and seven years after publication of the Global Mobility Regimes volume, the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration links cooperation on labor migration to cooperation on travel security by virtue of an overwhelming majority of the world’s states signing onto an agreement with commitments in both issue areas. For the first time, commitments by states to cooperate on border enforcement improve travel document security and collect and share traveler data are in the same international instrument as commitments to labor mobility, ethical recruitment of migrant workers, recognition of their skills and cheaper transfer of remittances. Hence, analysis of the Global Compact for Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees is a logical step for the Global Mobility Regimes project.
Over the course of the decade and a half that Koslowski has been researching international cooperation on migration and mobility at the global level, he has engaged with relevant international organizations and UN member state officials. for example, in April 2015, Koslowski served as an expert advisor to the Report Team of the United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for International Migration. He then joined the International Mobility Commission, convened in July 2015 by the Columbia Global Policy Initiative, which drafted and then published a Model International Mobility Convention in 2017 that, as noted in its first footnote, “borrows the conceptual framework suggested by Rey Koslowski for a “’General Agreement on Migration, Mobility and Security’ from his edited volume Global Mobility Regimes” (See convention posted at: https://mobilityconvention.columbia.edu). In addition to joining the group of mostly legal scholars and practitioners who served for two years on the International Mobility Commission, Koslowski contributed an article entitled “Think Mobility Instead of Migration: Leveraging Visitors, Tourists and Students for More International Cooperation,” to a 2018 special issue of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law that is published together with the convention.
Moving forward, Koslowski will continue to pursue a Global Compact for Migration Research Agenda and work with other academics interested in the Global Compact for Migration, primarily by serving as coordinator of the Academic Council on the Global Compact for Migration.
Publications:
2019
Rey Koslowski, “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration,” International Migration, first published online September 12, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12639
2018
Rey Koslowski, “Think Mobility Instead of Migration: Leveraging Visitors, Tourists and Students for More International Cooperation ” Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, Vol. 56, No. 2 (2018) pp. 263-273.
2017
Rey Koslowski, “Addressing Side-Effects of Increasing Border Security Cooperation: A Global Perspective,” in Ferruccio Pastore, ed. Beyond the Migration and Asylum Crisis. Options and Lessons for Europe (Rome: Aspen Institute Italia, 2017), pp. 108-114.
2012
Rey Koslowski, “Cooperation on Migration and Global Travel Security through Public Administration Reforms,” Tenth Coordination Meeting on International Migration, Population Division, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations Secretariat, New York, 9-10 February 2012, Document: UN/POP/MIG-10CM/2012/22, 6 February 2012.https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/events/coordination/10/docs/P22.University%20at%20Albany_new.pdf
2011
Rey Koslowski, "Global Mobility Regimes: A Conceptual Framework" in Rey Koslowski, ed. Global Mobility Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Rey Koslowski, "The International Travel Regime,” in Rey Koslowski, ed. Global Mobility Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Rey Koslowski, "Conclusion," in Rey Koslowski, ed. Global Mobility Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
Rey Koslowski, “International Travel,” in Alexander Betts, ed. Global Migration Governance (Oxford University Press, 2011).
2008
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility and The Quest for an International Migration Regime,” in Joseph Chamie and Luca Dall’Oglio, eds. International Migration and Development: Continuing the Dialogue: Legal and Policy Perspectives(Geneva: International Organization for Migration, 2008).
2006
Rey Koslowski, “Towards an International Regime for Mobility and Security?” in Kristof Tamas and Joakim Palme, Transnational Approaches to Reforming Migration Regimes (Ashgate, 2006).
2004
Rey Koslowski, “Possible Steps Towards an International Regime for Mobility and Security”, Research Paper Series of the Global Commission on International Migration: Global Migration Perspectives, No 8 (October 2004) at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/42ce49184.html
Presentations and participation in meetings:
2019
Rey Koslowski, “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees,” The American Political Science Association Meeting (APSA), Washington, DC, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2019.
Rey Koslowski, “Implications of the UN Global Compact for Migration for European Border Control and Migration Management,” Europe’s Role in Global Migration Governance, University of Mainz, July 4-5, 2019.
Participated in “Second informal dialogue with civil society and other non-governmental stakeholders to determine the precise modalities and organizational aspects of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), UN Headquarters, 17 April 2019.
2018
Rey Koslowski, “Border Security and International Cooperation to Secure International Travel” Annual Review of the Field of National Security Law Conference, American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security, November 1-2, 2018.
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” UN Headquarters, 21 May 2018.
Rey Koslowski, “Think Global Mobility Instead of International Migration,” 2018 Global Shifts Colloquium: Prospects for Institutional and Policy Reform on International Migration and Refugees, Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, April 9-10, 2018.
2017
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” UN Headquarters, New York, 18 December 2017.
Participated in “Contributions of migrants and diasporas to all dimensions of sustainable development, including remittances and portability of earned benefits,” UN Headquarters, New York, 24-25 July 2017
Rey Koslowski, “Reflections on Chapters Dealing with Visitors, Tourists and Students,” Model International Mobility Convention Symposium, Columbia Law School, April 26, 2017.
Participated in “15th annual coordination meeting on international migration” UN Headquarters, New York 16 -17 February 2017
Rey Koslowski, Presentation on Roundtable, “Facing the Gaps in International Migration and Refugee Law: A Model for a New Comprehensive Mobility Treaty,” International Studies Association (ISA), Baltimore, February 22-25, 2017.
2016
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing,” UN Headquarters, New York, 18 July 2016.
Participated in “14th annual coordination meeting on international migration” UN Headquarters, New York, 25-26 February 2016.
2015
Participated in High Commissioner’s Dialogue. UNHCR, Geneva, 14-16 December 2015
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility Regimes: A Conceptual Reframing,” University of Delaware, April 10, 2015.
2014
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility Regimes,” College of Europe, Natolin Campus, Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2014.
Participated in “12th Coordination meeting on international migration,” UN Headquarters, New York, 20-21 February 2014.
2013
Participated in “11th Coordination meeting on international migration,” UN Headquarters, New York, 21-22 February 2013.
2012
Rey Koslowski participated in the Tenth Coordination Meeting on International Migration of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division in New York, 9-10 February 2012. He briefly presented findings of his paper, “Cooperation on Migration and Global Travel Security through Public Administration Reforms,” largely drawn from the Global Mobility Regimes volume and then posted on the meeting website. See: https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/events/coordination/10/docs/List_of_papers_final.pdf
2011
Rey Koslowski, Presentation on Roundtable, Global Migration Governance,” International Studies Association (ISA), Montreal, Canada, March, 16-19, 2011.
2010
Participated in Fourth Meeting of the Global Forum on Migration and Development, 8-11 November 2010, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Rey Koslowski presented research findings from the Global Mobility Regimes project at the International Catholic Migration Commission’s Conversations Roundtable on migration in New York City in June 2010.
2009
Rey Koslowski presented concepts and research findings from the Global Mobility Regimes project in a speech on “Global Implications of the Mobility of People” at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Symposium on Machine Readable Travel Documents (MRTDs), Biometrics and Security, which was held at ICAO headquarters in Montreal on September 21-23, 2009. The symposium had over 400 participants including government officials from 66 countries. Prof. Koslowski discussed the economic, political and security dimensions of global human mobility (that encompasses international migration and short-term international travel) and argued that the global mobility concept contributes to a better understanding of existing international cooperation on migration and travel. He also challenged the audience on the lack of complete data on the number of entries into each UN member state and suggested a global mobility data collection project to the international organizations and member states present as well as a diplomatic initiative for international cooperation to address the problem of breeder documents used in travel document fraud, both of which were well-received. Koslowski’s Global Mobility Regimes project was also featured in an interview published in the ICAO MRTD Report, Vol 4, No 3 (2009). https://www.icao.int/publications/journalsreports/2009/ICAO%20MRTD%20Report%20Vol.4%20No.3%202009.pdf
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility Regimes: A Conceptual Reframing,” Human Development Report Office, UNDP, New York, 17 Feb., 2009; UNDP adopted my policy recommendation, “Development assistance programmes could support and finance administrative improvements for vital records registration with shorter processing times and lower costs. This would allow governments to offer their citizens proper travel documents at affordable prices” into 2009 Human Development Report, p. 103.
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility Regimes: A Conceptual Reframing,” International Studies Association (ISA), New York, NY, Feb 14-17, 2009.
2008
Rey Koslowski, “Global Mobility and the Quest for an International Migration Regime,” Conference on International Migration and Development: Continuing the Dialogue – Legal and Policy Perspectives, the Center for Migration Studies (CMS) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), New York, New York, January 17-18, 2008.
2005
Presented “Possible Steps Towards an International Regime for Mobility and Security”, at UNITAR meeting, United Nations, Mar. 31, 2005.
Rey Koslowski, “Possible Steps Towards an International Regime for Mobility and Security,” International Studies Association (ISA), Honolulu, Mar. 1-5, 2005.
2004
Rey Koslowski, “Possible Steps Towards an International Regime for Mobility and Security.” Workshop on Global Mobility Regimes, organized by the Institute for Futures Studies, the Centre for History and Economics, Kings College, Cambridge University and the Global Equity Initiative of Harvard University, Stockholm, June 11-12, 2004.