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Jeremy Waldron, NYU School of Law
Philosophical Foundations of Migration Law
Immigration has become a fierce and ubiquitous topic of
debate as governments determine on what basis to permit non-citizens into their
respective countries. Often economic and cultural interests are considered to
determine immigration policy, but are we entitled to pursue and protect our
interests in this way? This lecture will
consider the philosophical background to migration policy, and the assumptions
about us humans, our interests, our movement, and our settlements
that have to be made when such policies are formulated. Are migration restrictions an artifact of the
state? Or would human communities be
entitled to drive strangers away, even if there were no political institutions? Above all, can we make sense of migration
restrictions against a background assumption that, in some sense, we humans own
the world in common?
