Family Reunification: Policies and Issues

Abstract

International standards provide for protection of the family as the fundamental unit of society. However, a consequent right to family reunification for migrants is not sanctioned and continues to be resisted. This article reviews the formulation of the possibility for family reunification as provided for in international and regional standards and by migration policies. It argues that family separation, if inherent in some forms of migration, should not be institutionalized by migration policies and that state sovereignty is limited when dealing with human rights. More specifically it argues that labor migration, as currently developing in Asia, will require appropriate family reunification policies, because it will evolve into some form of settlement.