Catholic Social Teaching and Migration

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

The movement of peoples in a world of territorially bounded and sovereign nation-states was one of the earliest questions to arise in international thought and has been one of the most perduring. This course puts present questions about the ethics of migration, and the ethics of how receiving countries treat migrants, in historical, theoretical, and doctrinal context. The course begins by analyzing the role of hospitality rights in the claims of Europeans to travel and settle in the new world. It then moves to social analyses of migration patterns, a series of different theological and ethical frameworks for interpreting the contemporary challenge of migration - kinship; solidarity; communitarianism; human rights; justice; and responsibility -and the role of the theological notion of human dignity and a theologically grounded account of human rights in responding to challenge of migration.