LEGAL PROTECTION OF MIGRANT VULNERABILITY IN EUROPE AS AN EXPONENT OF “CATEGORICAL FETISHISM”

Abstract

Traditionally, both international law and doctrine consider economic migrants and refugees (forced migrants) as two fixed legal categories and recognise a different degree of vulnerability. Around this dual category, refugees and asylum seekers could be considered vulnerable by taking into account the motivation for leaving the country of origin and the treatment received during the asylum process, while in comparison it is even permissible to question or deny the vulnerability of economic or voluntary migrants. This distinction is reflected in the UN international protection system and supranational jurisprudence in order to modulate the standards of protection. Therefore, firstly, this proposal analyses the normative instruments that make up the generic category of vulnerable migrant and, secondly, it attempts to determine the legal limits and challenges it poses as yet another normative exponent of categorical fetishism, because of its inability to adjust to the real migratory context and processes.