Immigration and self-determination

Bas van der Vossen
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Bas van der Vossen: University of North Carolina Greensboro, USA

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2015, vol. 14, issue 3, 270-290

Abstract: This article asks whether states have a right to close their borders because of their right to self-determination, as proposed recently by Christopher Wellman, Michael Walzer, and others. It asks the fundamental question whether self-determination can, in even its most unrestricted form, support the exclusion of immigrants. I argue that the answer is no. To show this, I construct three different ways in which one might use the idea of self-determination to justify immigration restrictions and show that each of these arguments fails. My conclusion is that the nature and value of self-determination have to do with the conditions of genuine self-government, not membership of political society. Consequently, the demand for open borders is fully consistent with respect to self-determination.

Keywords: immigration; self-determination; borders; autonomy; Walzer; Wellman (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:14:y:2015:i:3:p:270-290

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X14533167

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