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From Openness to Inclusion: Toward a Democratic Approach to Migration Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2024

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Abstract

Many theorists argue that justice in international migration requires states to maximize the openness of their borders, even when that can only be done by denying full political membership to some migrants. In contrast, this article contends that democratic ideals recommend inclusion as the guiding principle of migration policy, since full membership for all the state’s residents is the only way to preserve democratic self-rule, whereas the justice- and freedom-related goals associated with openness can be promoted via other means. I define full inclusion as involving not only formal rights, but also solidarity. Against accounts that define solidarity in terms of shared identity (i.e., a specific commonality), I argue that democratic solidarity requires intersubjective “identification” among members of the demos, oriented toward their shared future. This account suggests how migration policy might advance the practical goal of more open borders, along with other moral goals associated with calls for greater openness, without sacrificing important democratic ideals.

Type
Special Section: Migrant Acceptance and Inclusion
Information
Perspectives on Politics , Volume 22 , Issue 4: Special Section: Migrant Acceptance and Inclusion , December 2024 , pp. 975 - 988
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Political Science Association

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