‘This paper starts from the assumption that (legitimate) states have a general right to control their borders and decide who to admit as future citizens. These decisions, however, should be guided by principles of justice. But which principles? To answer this we have to analyse the multifaceted relationships that may hold between states and prospective immigrants, distinguishing on the one hand between those who are either inside or outside the state’s territory, and on the other between refugees, economic migrants and ‘particularity claimants’. The claims of refugees, stemming from their human rights, are powerful though limited in scope: they hold against receiving states generally rather than the specific one to which they apply for asylum. Economic migrants cannot claim a right to be admitted as such, but only a right to have legitimate criteria of selection applied to them. In the case of particularity claimants, such as those seeking redress for harms inflicted on them or reward for the services they have rendered to the state, the main question is why awarding a right to enter should be the appropriate response to their claims. The paper concludes by asking how far principles of justice can be used to establish priorities between these different categories of migrants.’
Date: 5th February 2014, 4.00-7.00pm
Location: UCL Faculty of Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG
Charge: Free, registration required
More information can be found here.
