Global Justice and the Ethics of Immigration

Undergraduate / Graduate

This seminar introduces urgent moral and political questions in international affairs, with a particular focus on human rights, global inequality, colonialism and decolonization, structural injustice, and immigration. Addressed ethical questions will include: How should we understand the demands of social and distributive justice beyond state borders? Are economic inequalities between countries unjust? If so, why? What do affluent countries owe to less affluent countries? Who should bear responsibility for structural and historical injustices? Is there a human right to immigrate? Do states have a right to close their borders to immigrants? Do states have a right to constrain their citizens' ability to emigrate? We will address these and other ethical questions by reading and critically assessing important texts written by leading scholars within the fields of political philosophy, postcolonial theory, legal scholarship and applied ethics. The seminar requires no prior background.