REFLECTION ON THE LATEST PROGRESS IN CHINESE LEGISLATION ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

Abstract

On 30 June 2012 China promulgated the Exit-Entry Administration Law of the P.R.C., which is the most systematic and fully developed law on international migration in China up to now. This paper firstly gives an in-depth analysis of the features and contents of the new law. Deficits of the Law as well as possible solutions are expounded in the following section, in comparison with China’s international obligations under relevant international treaties that it has ratified. Finally, this article elaborates on the Law’s potential impacts on international migration. The law gives equal emphasis on strengthening exit-entry control and facilitating the cross-border movement of desired migrants. It demonstrates that super-national treatments that aliens have received in China in many ways are giving way to national treatments. Such a security-oriented law will be an effective instrument for preventing illegal migration. Yet its failure to address refugees and trafficked victim protection might impinge on the rights of refugees and trafficked victims in international migration.