Mobility without membership : do we need special passports for vulnerable groups?

Abstract

A very small minority of wealthy people can afford to buy ‘better’ passports, and enhance their mobility and lifetime opportunities. At the same time, millions of others would desperately need the right travel documents to move to places where they can find protection or work. How can we respond to urgent needs and specific disadvantages faced by those for whom mobility is not a luxury but a necessity? This working paper compiles contributions to a GLOBALCIT Forum debate launched by forum co-editors Jelena Džankić and Rainer Bauböck with a proposal to institute an exceptional mobility regime for vulnerable groups. The Forum debate brought together responses from fifteen authors considering the viability of the proposal in relation to the understanding of what constitutes a vulnerability in different regions in the world. It concludes with reflections from both editors on the critiques of the original proposal.