Why Politicians Get Migration Wrong; It’s More Than a Security Issue

Why is migration often reduced to a security issue when its realities are far more complex? In this episode, Pablo Ceriani Cernadas, Human Rights law expert and lecturer, reflects on why migration must be understood through a broader interdisciplinary lens rather than through narrow political narratives. Cernadas, who gave a keynote address at the International Conference on Interdisciplinary Approaches to Addressing Xenophobia in the Southern African Region, held at University of Johannesburg, argues that when migration is discussed only through the language of borders and security, societies risk ignoring the deeper economic and social realities that drive movement; including labour demand, family survival, and structural inequality. He notes that many sectors of modern economies depend heavily on migrant contributions, from domestic work to trade and informal labour, making migration central to how societies function. Cernadas also reflects on the difficult but necessary work of confronting xenophobia, arguing that while the challenge is structural and complex, progress remains possible through steady institutional, legal, and social effort. At its core, the discussion asks an important question: Can societies address xenophobia effectively if they continue to misunderstand migration itself? Cernadas is a lawyer (University of Buenos Aires), and has a PhD in Human Rights (University of Valencia, Spain) as well as a Master degree in International Migration and Migration Law (European University of Madrid). He is currently the Coordinator of the Migration & Asylum Research and Advocacy Program at the Institute for Justice and Human Rights of the National University of Lanús (UNLA, Argentina) and the Director of the Specialization on Migration, Asylum and Human Rights (UNLA). He is the former Vice-Chairperson of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Migrant Workers and Their Families (CMW), Professor on Migration & Human Rights at the Master on Human Rights (UNLA), Law School & Postgraduate Diplomate on Migration and Refugees (University of Buenos Aires) and Master in Human Rights and Democratization (National University of San Martin).