GOVT 86.56 Ethics of Immigration

International migration has become a major topic in both domestic and global politics. This seminar addresses key scholarly debates in the political philosophy of migration, and focuses on the normative challenges posed by contemporary politics of immigration.

The course is mainly divided into three parts. The first part examines the open borders debate and asks: Should people, independent of their citizenship, be able move across international borders? Do states have a right to exclude migrants? We will survey the arguments -for and against- open borders stressing the main philosophical approaches and their justifications (e.g., deontological/right-based, consequentialist/utilitarian). In the second part of the course, our focus will be on the integration of immigrants. We will cover topics such as naturalization of immigrants and the rights and obligations of citizenship. In the third part, we will discuss contemporary critical issues in migration such as asylum, refugees, displacement, statelessness, undocumented migration, deportation, externalization of borders, short-term migration, and the right to travel. In the final class, we devote our discussion to students’ research papers.

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:TMV

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.

Department-Specific Course Categories

Government