Abstract

The aim of this article is to discuss why the principle of equality and non-discrimination, although foundational to international human rights law, remains an unfulfilled promise in the context of immigration. Nationality is now widely considered as a suspect ground of discrimination, yet contemporary immigration and citizenship laws increasingly use meritocratic criteria to distinguish among migrants. Although framed in universal terms, these criteria create differences of treatment among migrants based on their income, level of education and economic worth. However, from a legal perspective such differences of treatment rarely amount to prohibited discrimination. Looking at the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, this article argues that the normative content of the equality and non-discrimination principle fails to challenge such differences of treatment. Moreover, the proportionality test is used as a judicial restraint mechanism which prevents the effective enforcement of the equality requirement by international and domestic courts in the context of immigration.

中文翻译：

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移民法平等：一个不可能的追求？

摘要

本文的目的是讨论为什么平等和不歧视原则虽然是国际人权法的基础，但在移民背景下为何仍未实现。如今，国籍被广泛视为歧视的可疑依据，但当代的移民法和公民法越来越多地使用精英标准来区分移民。尽管这些标准是通用的，但根据移民的收入，教育水平和经济价值，它们在移民之间造成了待遇差异。但是，从法律的角度来看，这种区别对待很少构成禁止歧视。看看欧洲人权法院的判例法，本文认为，平等与非歧视原则的规范内容未能挑战这种待遇差异。此外，比例测试被用作司法限制机制，以防止国际和国内法院在移民背景下有效执行平等要求。