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Migration: The Boundaries of Equality and Justice

ISBN: 978-0-745-63008-3

June 2003

Polity

200 pages

Description
The freedom to choose where to live and work is a fundamental right in liberal societies. The moral equality of persons is the basic principle of democratic politics. But liberal democracy has no coherent theory of boundaries, or how members should be selected for political communities. The global economy requires mobility across borders, but liberal democracy cannot reconcile the demands of footloose and rivalrous economic agents with the human needs of sedentary and vulnerable populations.


These are urgent issues for the new century, as the upsurge of nationalist, authoritarian and racist movements threatens the liberal democratic order. Mass migrations in search of political freedom and economic opportunity expose incoherence in states’ policies, and in theories of equality and justice. Whilst globalization allows new opportunities for mobility and membership in a chosen community, claims for income support or humanitarian protection are viewed as signs of moral defectiveness. In this book, Bill Jordan and Franck Düvell offer an alternative to market-driven regimes for migration management, which select those able to make economic contributions, whilst confining vulnerable outsiders to impoverished and excluded communities of fate.

About the Author
Bill Jordan is Professor of Social Policy at Exeter and Huddersfield Universities and Reader in Social Policy at London Metropolitan University. Dr Franck Düvell is Research Fellow at Exeter University and Lecturer at the University of Bremen
Features

  • Offers an alternative to market-driven regimes for migration management, which select only those able to make economic contributions.

  • Shows that liberal democracy has no coherent theory of how members should be selected for political communities - the demands of footloose economic agents cannot be reconciles with the needs of vulnerable populations.

  • Exposes incoherence in states’ policies, and in theories of equality and justice.

  • Includes new research evidence on transnational nomadism.