Debating the Ethics of Immigration Is There a Right to Exclude?

by Wellman, Christopher Heath; Cole, Phillip

• ISBN13: 9780199731725
• ISBN10: 0199731721
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-09-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Do states have the right to prevent potential immigrants from crossing their borders, or should people have the freedom to migrate and settle wherever they wish? Christopher Heath Wellman and Phillip Cole develop and defend opposing answers to this timely and important question. Appealing to the right to freedom of association, Wellman contends that legitimate states have broad discretion to exclude potential immigrants, even those who desperately seek to enter. Against this, Cole argues that the commitment to the moral equality of all human beings - which legitimate states can be expected to hold - means national borders must be open: equal respect requires equal access, both to territory and membership; and that the idea of open borders is less radical than it seems when we consider how many territorial and community boundaries have this open nature. In addition to engaging with each other's arguments, Wellman and Cole address a range of central questions and prominent positions on this topic. The authors therefore provide a critical overview of the major contributions to the ethics of migration, as well as developing original, provocative positions of their own.

Author Biography

Christopher Heath Wellman is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis and Professorial Fellow at CAPPE, Charles Sturt University. He works in ethics, specializing in political and legal philosophy. His most recent book, coauthored with Andrew Altman, is A Liberal Theory of International Justice (Oxford University Press, 2009). Phillip Cole is Professor of Applied Philosophy at the University of Wales, Newport. He has written extensively on the ethics of migration, including Philosophies of Ex-clusion-.Liberal Political Theory and Immigration [Edinburgh University Press, 2000). He is currently writing a book on the ethics of emigration.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	p. vii
Introduction	p. 1
freedom of association and the right to exclude
In Defense of the Right to Exclude	p. 13
The Egalitarian Case for Open Borders	p. 57
The Libertarian Case for Open Borders	p. 79
The Democratic Case for Open Borders	p. 93
The Utilitarian Casefor Open Borders	p. 105
Refugees	p. 117
Toward an International Institution with Authority over Immigration	p. 125
Guest Workers	p. 133
Selection Criteria	p. 143
Conclusion	p. 155
Open Borders: An Ethical Defense
The Shape of the Debate	p. 159
The Case Against the Right to Exclude	p. 173
Wellman on Freedom of Association	p. 233
Consequentialist Concerns	p. 261
Toward a Right to Mobility	p. 293
Conclusion	p. 309
Index	p. 315
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