Stuck in Between Law and Politics? Understanding the Impact of the Right to Housing as a Right of Migrants and Refugees in International Law

Finding and maintaining adequate housing is an increasingly serious struggle for many. To what extent the right to housing in international law offers a way out of this struggle is a crucial question that requires careful thinking. This chapter offers a perspective for answering this question by focusing on a particular group: migrants and refugees. To do so, it examines the dynamics of how the right to housing is shaped and interpreted in international law with a focus on the United Nations system. It argues that three factors impede the potential impact that the right to housing in international law could have on migrants and refugees: 1) the centrality of state consent in agreeing to be bound by treaties, 2) treaties’ selective way of granting rights, and 3) the lax regime of examining states’ compliance with their obligations. By discussing each of these factors through three relevant norms of international law, the chapter argues that looking at a social right such as the right to housing through the migration and asylum lens on the international plane lays bare the tight space between law and politics.