Mobility as Justice: Rethinking Migration and Global Power

Isabella Fernanda Burgos

Immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. (Verónica G. Cárdenas/The New York Times)

Movement itself is resistance. Over 280 million people live outside of their country of origin, not just as victims, but as assertive actors in the face of the global divide. While dominant narratives frame migration as either a humanitarian issue or a security threat, these narratives overlook migration as a form of resistance – a structural critique of the hierarchies rooted in global power relations. These framings take away migrant agency and disregard the deeper reasons why people leave their homelands. Migration, in context, is political as it resists global inequality simply by occurring.

Beyond Humanitarianism and Security

Debates on migration are often reduced by two narratives: pity and fear. Through one lens, migrants are viewed as powerless victims, stripped of any dignity or self-determination. Through the other, they are cast as threats to borders, resources, labor markets, and the fragile notion of “national identity”. Both portrayals undeniably erase the political force embedded in mobility. These debates overlook how migration uncovers disparities in access to resources, security, and opportunities across nations, as well as the restrictive immigration policies that systematically disfavor migrants fleeing conflict, poverty, or environmental collapse. To migrate is to break past the barriers drawn by colonial legacies, economic exploitation, and international hierarchies. Migration exposes the limitations of the narratives attempting to belittle its significance.

The Politics of Movement                 

When migrants leave their countries, they are not only seeking safety but asserting their right to life in the global order that has historically excluded them. Survival becomes political when the conditions forcing people to leave – socioeconomic crisis, labor exploitation, and armed violence – are directly linked to the unequal distribution of resources and power. Whether driven by climate collapse or labor demand, migration reveals these disparities.

Take climate displacement as an example: in the Global South, underserved communities bear greater consequences of the climate crisis, predominantly brought on by the industrialized North. By moving, these communities lay bare the injustice of a global order that benefits the few while sacrificing the many. On the other hand, labor migration highlights another, often dismissed, truth: the world relies on migrant workers yet refuses to grant them recognition.  These acts of mobility are not a passive response to inequity, but natural responses to ongoing crisis that powerful nations continue to ignore.

Reclaiming Migrant Agency                 

Migrants are much more than aid recipients. They make decisions, build community, and advocate for their rights at every step of their journey. Some argue that migration overburdens host countries’ economies due to migrants accessing social welfare programs without contributing to taxes. Yet this perspective, driven by prejudice, is contradicted by migrant taxation data. In 2022 alone, immigrant households paid $579.1 billion in total taxes, which is nearly one in every six tax dollars collected by federal, state, and local governments. Migrants make substantial contributions to US economic growth, and stating otherwise is turning a blind eye to both data and migrant experiences. 

Borders are often justified as preserving order. But enforcing these borders without question – and ignoring their exclusionary origin – upholds power structures and their hierarchy of human worth. Globally, nearly 9,000 migrants died during their journey in 2024, making it the deadliest year on record. Restrictive immigration policies do not deter migration; they only make it more perilous. Migrants who still risk these odds, not only seek safety, but simultaneously unveil the realities of the rigged system that stands against them. These realities show us that migration cannot be understood through policies or borders, but through a holistic approach that considers migrant struggles, resilience, contributions, and historical context.

Reshaping the Narrative

Migration is much more than a symptom of a crisis. It is a challenge to the global system. Every step across a border is a demand for justice. Confining migration into a single category – either threat or tragedy – neglects its underlying political nature. Every migrant who decides to leave their home makes an active decision to fight to be seen and valued. Movement itself is resistance, and mobility is justice.