Keywords:
immigration restrictions, collective self-determination, territorial rights, David Miller, liberal democracy, libertarianism, moderate cosmopolitanismCopyright (c) 2024 Federico Arcos Ramírez
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
Conceived as the right of states to shape their future character, collective self-determination offers an important reason to justify a right to ‘exclude’ potential immigrants. This article focuses on the analysis of this argument, taking David Miller’s reflections as its main point of reference. After addressing how the territorial rights of states (even if they can be justified on the value of self-determination) are not sufficient to justify immigration restrictions, the view of self-determination as the power of a group to determine its own composition, in particular by restricting immigration, is explored further. In particular, it addresses the argument that the arrival of excessive numbers of immigrants with illiberal political values can have negative effects on self-determination in liberal democracies and discusses libertarian criticisms of this thesis. I will conclude by showing how the self-determination argument is only defensible from a moderate cosmopolitan perspective that justifies a certain degree of partiality towards fellow citizens.
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