The Ethics of Immigration
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| Anteprima |
In
The Ethics of Immigration, Joseph Carens synthesizes a lifetime of work
to explore and illuminates one of the most pressing issues of our time.
Immigration poses practical problems for western democracies and also
challenges the ways in which people in democracies think about
citizenship and belonging, about rights and responsibilities, and about
freedom and equality. Carens begins by focusing on current immigration
controversies in North America and Europe about access to citizenship,
the integration of immigrants, temporary workers, irregular migrants and
the admission of family members and refugees. Working within the moral
framework provided by liberal democratic values, he argues that some of
the practices of democratic states in these areas are morally
defensible, while others need to be reformed. In the last part of the
book he moves beyond the currently feasible to ask questions about
immigration from a more fundamental perspective. He argues that
democratic values of freedom and equality ultimately entail a commitment
to open borders. Only in a world of open borders, he contends, will we
live up to our most basic principles. Many will not agree with some of
Carens' claims, especially his controversial conclusion, but none will
be able to dismiss his views lightly. Powerfully argued by one of the
world's leading political philosophers on the issue, The Ethics of
Immigration is a landmark work on one of the most important global
social trends of our era.
