Immigration Justice: Decolonizing the Field

This article aims to think beyond European legal doctrine and political theory. Drawing inspiration from Cusicanqui’s decolonial aspirations, Mendoza, Sanni, and El Fadl are examined to explore counterhegemonic conceptions of immigration ethics. While highlighting the progressive and pro-homine approaches of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, this paper challenges these subaltern judicial bodies to push their boundaries farther. These judicial bodies make strides in challenging the hegemonic legal framework, but there is still ample room for alternative practices. A broader and more transformative perspective on immigration justice necessitates a non-ideal theory that focuses on the lived realities of migrants across demographics of race, gender, and class and, in the realm of human rights law doctrine, an approach that goes beyond the formal equality of states.