The two Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees, adopted in December 2018, reflect public and policy discourse and international legal norms in differentiating between “refugees” and “migrants”. Yet, in a context of mixed migration flows, where migrants and refugees move along the same routes and are, for all but legal purposes, indistinguishable, it can be questioned to what extent distinctions in law are adequate. This essay challenges the dichotomy between “refugees” and “migrants” and instead refers to “people on the move” as an overarching category including a wider range of human mobility for whom there needs to be a basic standard of protection. More specifically, the essay argues we should broaden our analysis to include the rights of people on the move. We thus make an attempt at conceptualizing and delineating the rights of people on the move, anchored in a human rights approach, and pay particular attention to those rights that are the most relevant, namely their mobility rights, safety and dignity rights, and legal protection rights.

2018年12月通过的两项关于移民和难民问题的全球契约，反映了区分“难民”和“移民”的公共和政策话语以及国际法律规范。但是，在混合移民潮的情况下，移民和难民沿着相同的路线前进，并且除了法律目的之外，几乎是无法区分的，可以质疑在法律上的区别在多大程度上是适当的。本文对“难民”与“移民”之间的二分法提出了挑战，而是将“流动中的人们”作为一个总体类别，包括需要更基本的保护标准的更大范围的人员流动。更具体而言，本文认为我们应该扩大分析范围，以包括流动中的人们的权利。