Semantron 26

Immigration

to other countries that can accommodate more refugees, such as Germany, which accommodated more than 1 million refugees (BAMF, 2015). This consideration adheres to the threshold framework and is in line with the obligation beyond borders argued for earlier. Balancing both the needs for refugees to reach a safe country and the straining nature of reaching the threshold for states, relocating refugees once states reach the threshold would be justified and required. Conclusion Limiting immigration to protect cultural practices and traditions remains important, but they are irrelevant until the threshold is met given the need for basic liberties of freedom of movement and association, and remedial duties on disadvantaged immigrants. This essay has argued that legitimate cultural preferences are limited to public culture necessary to sustain institutional cooperation; that limiting immigration is justified only at an evidence-based threshold when states cannot secure core civic functions; that states must implement integration programmes to assist immigrants; that immigration systems must be designed to avoid indirect discrimination due to historical injustices; that any exclusion of economic migrants based on unchosen disadvantages must be paired with compensatory programmes; and that states can refuse refugee admissions, but only with relocation. In this configuration, states can balance the importance of protecting public culture while allowing the core rights of migration and restoring historical injustices.

References

Abizadeh, A. 2014.’Review of Carens’ The Ethics of Immigration ’, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews . Available at https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-ethics-of-immigration/ Al Hashmi, R. 2025. ‘Selecting Immigrants by Skill and Global Inequality’, Journal of Social Philosophy . Available at https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/122699/1/Journal%20of%20Social%20Philosophy%20- %202025%20-%20Al%20Hashmi%20- %20Selecting%20Immigrants%20by%20Skill%20and%20Global%20Inequality.pdf Alesina, A. and E. La Ferrara. 2002. ‘Who Trusts Others?’ Journal of Public Economics 85(2): 207–234 Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2024. Migration, Australia, 2022–23. Canberra: ABS Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge. (2016). Migrationsbericht 2015 [Migration Report 2015]. BAMF Carens, J. 1987. ‘Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders’, Review of Politics 49(2): 251–273 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. (2013). The cost of Syrian refugees. Carnegie Endowment Cohen, G. 1989. ‘On the Currency of Egalitarian Justice’, Ethics 99(4): 906–944 European Parliament. 2017. ‘Employment and the principle of ‘Community preference’.’ Parliamentary question E-005764/2017 to the Commission, submitted by Dominique Martin (ENF) under Rule 130, answered in writing by Ms Thyssen on behalf of the Commission on 15/9/2017 Goodwin-Gill, S., and J. McAdam. 2007. The Refugee in International Law. 3rd ed. Oxford Miller, D. 2007. National Responsibility and Global Justice. Oxford Miller, D. 2016 . Strangers in Our Midst: The Political Philosophy of Immigration. Cambridge, MA Nozick, R. 1974. Anarchy, State, and Utopia. New York OECD. 2023. International Migration Outlook 2023 . Paris Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. (2018). The principle of non-refoulement under international human rights law. Portes, A., P. Fernández-Kelly, and W. Haller. 2009. ‘The Adaptation of the Immigrant Second Generation in America’, International Migration Review 43(4): 881–902 Putnam, R. 2007. ‘E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the Twenty-First Century’, Scandinavian Political Studies 30(2): 137–174

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