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Migration in Political Theory: The Ethics of Movement and Membership
Written by an international team of leading political and legal theory scholars whose writings have contributed to shaping the field, Migration in Political Theory presents seminal new work on the ethics of movement and membership.
The volume addresses challenging and under-researched themes on the subject of migration. It debates the question of whether we ought to recognize a human right to immigrate, and whether it might be legitimate to restrict emigration. The authors critically examine criteria for selecting would-be migrants, and for acquiring citizenship, as well as the tensions between the claims of immigrants and existing residents, and tackle questions of migrant worker exploitation and responsibility for refugees. All of the chapters illustrate the importance of drawing on the tools of political theory to clarifying, criticize and challenge the current terms of the migration debate.
The volume addresses challenging and under-researched themes on the subject of migration. It debates the question of whether we ought to recognize a human right to immigrate, and whether it might be legitimate to restrict emigration. The authors critically examine criteria for selecting would-be migrants, and for acquiring citizenship, as well as the tensions between the claims of immigrants and existing residents, and tackle questions of migrant worker exploitation and responsibility for refugees. All of the chapters illustrate the importance of drawing on the tools of political theory to clarifying, criticize and challenge the current terms of the migration debate.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 12, 2024
must-read
March 16, 2021
This is a well-edited volume on migration in political theory, with contributions from advocates of both immigration restriction and freedom of movement, as well as explorations of narrower topics, like the role of racism immigration restrictions, how the new "skilled" hierarchy influences the discussion of migration, and guest worker programs.
As a proponent of a robust freedom of movement myself, I of course appreciated Kieran Oberman's defense of the right to migrate. But Anna Stilz's discussion of the obligations emigrants to their countries of origin provided food for thought. One can talk about taxes and obligations and the relationship of an emigrant to their non-severed origin countries in the context of freedom of movement.
But to me the most interesting contributions were those by Sarah Fine and Chandran Kukathas. Fine pulls in the race scholar Charles Mills to suggest that something is amiss when we talk about immigration restrictions in an overly abstract, race-neutral way. After all in the real, non-ideal world the history of immigration restrictions are thoroughly suffused with racism. Fine hints tantalizingly, but ultimately leaves a lot on the table. What would rectificatory antiracist justice look like in migration?
Kukathas neatly subverts the role of refugeehood, arguing that the actual functional role the category of refugee plays is for states to evade humanitarian responsibilities by defining refugee narrowly and non-refugee migrant broadly. But Kukathas argues that the distinction between refugees and other migrants is in general a problematic one.
As a proponent of a robust freedom of movement myself, I of course appreciated Kieran Oberman's defense of the right to migrate. But Anna Stilz's discussion of the obligations emigrants to their countries of origin provided food for thought. One can talk about taxes and obligations and the relationship of an emigrant to their non-severed origin countries in the context of freedom of movement.
But to me the most interesting contributions were those by Sarah Fine and Chandran Kukathas. Fine pulls in the race scholar Charles Mills to suggest that something is amiss when we talk about immigration restrictions in an overly abstract, race-neutral way. After all in the real, non-ideal world the history of immigration restrictions are thoroughly suffused with racism. Fine hints tantalizingly, but ultimately leaves a lot on the table. What would rectificatory antiracist justice look like in migration?
Kukathas neatly subverts the role of refugeehood, arguing that the actual functional role the category of refugee plays is for states to evade humanitarian responsibilities by defining refugee narrowly and non-refugee migrant broadly. But Kukathas argues that the distinction between refugees and other migrants is in general a problematic one.
November 4, 2022
Very interesting different theories and perspectives
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews