Justice in Immigration: Citizenship, Residence & Political Association

In what follows, I provide an account of the constraints justice imposes on immigration policy. In a debate often characterized by dichotomous extremes – pitting liberal nationalists favoring restrictive constraints against cosmopolitans committed to open borders – I develop an associative account which defends a principled middle-ground. This view allows (unlike advocates of open borders) that the citizenry has a special claim to state institutions as a result of having constructed them but insists (against liberal nationalists) that the citizenry's ownership of state institutions must be weighed against needs and interests of foreigners. The view that results provides a framework from which to assess disputes regarding refugee policy, illegal immigration, the legitimacy of guest worker programs, and the extent of the citizenry's discretion in the formulation of immigration policy.

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