Morals and Immigration: Thinking What is Best for the World

Professor Mathias Risse from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government has presented a theory that some people are finding novel - that the U.S. is unfairly restricting immigration.  Salon.com praises Risse for being so bold as to "turn immigration policy on its head" - 

It is good that at least someone besides the pro-immigrant blog sphere is aware of the immorality of how undocumented immigrants are treated in the United States.  With all due respect to Dr. Risse - his words are not new.... what is new is that someone like Risse* - from Harvard - is saying something different - 

Philosopher Michel Foucault wrote that the transfer of information is given much more weight if the speaker is of a higher class, or education, or valued group (like WASPS or professors at Ivy League colleges).

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008 14:11 PDT

Salon.com
On the morality of immigration
Some statistics on population density:

... Mathias Risse, a professor of public policy and philosophy at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, concludes in "On the Morality of Immigration," published in the March issue of Ethics & International Affairs, that "the United States is severely underusing its chunk of three-dimensional, commonly owned space." From which it follows, argues Risse, that it is unfair for the U.S. to restrict immigration, legal or illegal, across its borders.

This is a perspective one is unlikely to hear espoused by presidential candidates in the U.S., no matter how liberal their views on immigration are. For one thing, it requires that one think about the world as if it was collectively owned by all of humanity, rather than divided into nasty little nation-states dedicated to protecting their most cherished NIMBY values with armed forces, fences and elaborate visa regulations. It is hopelessly utopian to imagine that national politicians would ever make decisions on topics as explosive as immigration policy on the basis of what would be best for the world.

...Risse argues that "as long as a country underuses its resources and refuses to permit more immigration in response, illegal immigration cannot be morally condemned..."


― Andrew Leonard

for link to complete Salon.com article click here

*not a person of color, the son of migrant workers, or an immigrant from a third world country.