The Egalitarian Case for Open Borders

This chapter challenges the egalitarian case for open borders and defends the right of legitimate states to design and enforce their own immigration policies. It offers two reasons why the egalitarian case for open borders is not convincing. Not only does it question the particular brand of egalitarianism invoked in this argument, it seems that wealthy states can satisfactorily discharge their duties to the world's poor without opening their borders. Not everyone who believes that all humans are entitled to equal moral consideration agrees that we must eliminate all inequality. Egalitarians who push for open borders typically presume the adequacy of luck egalitarianism. If we switch from luck to relational egalitarianism, however, the disparities in wealth among different countries appears much less problematic. The chapter also considers a state's right to freedom of association in relation to duties of distributive justice.