Border Control, Migration Pathways, and Social Inequality
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Michael Ball-Blakely
Abstract
Relational egalitarians have increasingly argued that immigration control facilitates social inequality. This ranges from Amy Reed-Sandoval’s account of the socially undocumented, to Désirée Lim’s criticisms of skill selection’s expressive disrespect, to Daniel Sharp’s claim that immigration control exercises power over would-be immigrants. I develop a novel extension of relational egalitarianism principles. Unlike other accounts, I argue that immigration control contributes to inegalitarian relationships that are not: (1) within the receiving state, (2) the result of discrimination, (3) simply the exercise of power-over, and (4) between the receiving state and would-be immigrants. I argue that immigration restrictions can, in the context of cultures of migration, create inegalitarian relationships in sending countries, harming both would-be immigrants and nonimmigrant populations. Cultures of migration respond to and help create changes in values. They lead to a dissatisfaction with local opportunities – including employment, consumption, and cultural practices. When borders are relaxed, these changes promote immigration. But when they are hardened, the changes persist while the dissatisfied are increasingly trapped in a society that they no longer find desirable. And nonimmigrants – who might still endorse local values and desire local opportunities – are left living amidst (often) more privileged compatriots who increasingly denigrate the lifestyles they endorse.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for MOPP, including the guest editor, for incredibly helpful and in-depth comments. This project has also benefitted greatly from the lovely community at the Stanford McCoy Center for Ethics, the Stanford Political Theory Workshop, and attendees at the North American Society for Social Philosophy, the Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World, the Eastern APA, and Cal State University Sacramento.
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