Memo #4: Immigration Quotas
Niall Janney
Question: Should market mechanisms play a role in allocating responsibilities for
taking in refugees?
In Cavallero’s policy proposal, I felt two ethical concerns come into conflict.
On
one hand, we have a desire to aid the large group of refugees from all over the world who
were unlucky enough to be born into a developing nation in conflict.
Yet we also value
the stability and integrity of our own society and thus cannot envision opening our
borders to all.
Xenophobia, self-interest, and practical considerations plague the search
for a viable approach to refugee relief.
Balancing individual moral obligations toward
humanity with the obligations due to ones own nation creates a seemingly impassable
ethical obstacle.
Allowing market mechanisms to dictate refugee and immigrant policy
does not solve these ethical issues—it avoids them altogether.
Cavellero offers two morally lazy policy prescriptions that trouble me.
The first
is a willingness to free up national borders.
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- Spring '09
- Philosophy of life, immigrant quota, Cavellero
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