Sunday Lecture – The Ethics of Open Borders

In this lecture I argue that immigration controls have no place in liberal political theory. At present the movement of people across national borders is seen as an anomaly to be tolerated by nation states who maintain close control over border crossings. This strikes me as itself an anomaly given the ease with which we travel over all other kinds of boundaries and the extent to which we take this ease for granted. The world is crisscrossed with all kinds of “territorial” boundaries which designate provinces regions counties etc.—national borders are exceptional rather than the rule in how we think about territorial boundaries and our right to cross them.; A central assumption of my argument is that a recognisably liberal political theory has at its centre the commitment to the moral equality of persons. National membership restrictions necessarily violate that central ethical commitment. Ethical universalism tells us that moral principles and values apply to all persons equally in the absence of any morally relevant differences: how can we then prioritise moral commitments to co-nationals over others and still respect the moral equality of those others? The answer is I believe that we cannot and so immigration controls fail a basic moral test. We – as members of a particular nation — may wish to retain them for pragmatic self-interested reasons but we have to accept that we have failed to be ethical. The moral case for open borders — freedom of international movement — is far stronger than people recognise and it is odd that it is so seldom heard.; Phillip Cole has written on human rights and international migration including the right to healthcare. His most recently work is Debating the Ethics of Immigration: Is there a right to Exclude ? (Oxford University Press 2011) with Christopher Heath Wellman. He is Visiting Professor in Applied Philosophy at the Social Ethics Research Group University of Wales Newport.; Open to all. No need to book in advance.