Overview of David Miller's Position on Immigration

Objectives

1. Provide general principles that democratic states can use when dealing with immigration
2. To examine immigration and its relevance to the state, legitimacy, territory, self-determination, social justice, cultural identity, global justice, and human rights

Scope

1. It covers economic migration, temporary migration, access to citizenship, refugees, and etc.

Things not covered by his book Strangers in our midst

1. Immigration as an economic issue
2. Completely viewing immigration from the lens of human rights

Foundational Principles

1. It is valid for states to care more for the interests of their members over those of outsiders. Miller uses the concept of associative obligations to justify this partiality.
2. All humans are given equal moral worth; therefore, Miller argues that we should respect human rights and provide relevant reasons when withholding benefits that go beyond human rights.

Most Important Arguments in favor of Fully Opening Borders

1. No one should be excluded from any part of earth because it is owned by human beings in common.
   • Miller argues that this only justifies the right for humans to access territory when its crucial for their survival.
2. Equal global opportunity requires open borders
   • Miller claims that these would be problematic without the following:
     1. A universal metric for valuing different opportunities
     2. A unitary authority that creates those opportunities.
3. Immigration is a human right in itself
   • According to Miller, human rights should, at minimum, cover the rights necessary for survival and for the protection from arbitrary interference by the state. As a result, it does not guarantee the satisfaction of everyone’s preferences.
   • Freedom of movement is already restricted for reasons such as the protection of land ownership, and preservation of public order; hence, immigration should also be viewed similarly.

Reasons for States to Control Their Borders and Pursue a Selective Immigration Policy

1. The state’s right to exercise territorial jurisdiction entails that they have a right to determine and set limits to the population whom they can exercise their jurisdiction on.
   • This is emphasized more in democratic states, where members are committed to collective self-determination; therefore, they can decide who can and cannot be included in their population.
2. Immigration policy is closely related to other policy areas (e.g., education, housing, and energy use) because the number of people to cater for is a crucial factor when considering their implementation.

Democratic Arguments against Border Control

1. Without immigration, the nation’s population would be culturally homogeneous
2. The immigrants’ claim to being admitted outweighs the importance of political self-determination
3. Forbidding immigration involves a state coercing outsiders without their consent; for this reason, it is unjustified.
   • Miller contends that it is not coercive, rather, preventative; nonetheless, he claims that using coercive forces does not always necessitate its democratic justification to coercion targets.

Immigrants

Dimensions of Classifications

1. Whether they are refugees or economic migrants
2. Whether they can make a particularity claim (e.g., a claim for reparation) against the receiving society or not

What Constitutes as a Refugee?

In the context of his book, Miller defines refugees as people who can only protect their human rights by moving across a border.

Rights

Miller thinks that the state has an obligation to address the claim of refugees to stay in their territory for refuge; however, their sanctuary is not always guaranteed. He lists possible selection criteria for admitting refugees:

1. The refugee’s need for permanent settlement;
2. The causal role played by the receiving state in creating the situation from which the refugee is escaping;
3. The likely economic contribution of the refugee to the receiving society;
4. The degree of cultural affinity between refugee and host political community.

On the other hand, economic migrants are admitted on the basis of mutual advantage instead of vulnerability.

In relation to Michael Walzer’s claim that temporary migration are inherently tyrannical, Miller responds by arguing that they are justified as long as they are fixed term and are subject to proper legal regulation.

Miller also finds that it is insufficient to use arguments that appeal to the human right against discrimination/injustice. When dealing with the question on why states should not be allowed to select permanent migrants on the basis of any feature (like race), he believes that political and cultural attributes do not constitute as relevant reasons for withholding benefits that go beyond human rights.

Forms of Particularity Claim for Admission

1. Reparative claims
   • Immigrants have a right to be compensated by the state after they have inflicted harm on them
2. Claims of desert
   • Immigrants are rewarded migration rights for their services

Miller, nonetheless, requires these claims to work in conjunction with other factors because they cannot solely justify the admission of immigrants.

Irregular Migrants

According to Miller, irregular migrants without legal rights to enter are not granted citizenship rights, only human rights derived from their state of residence. Nevertheless, Miller agrees with Joseph Caren’s argument that irregular migrants are given permanent residence and citizenship rights once they have physically stayed for enough time in the state’s territory.

In addition, Miller thinks that immigrants ought to integrate with the community. To be specific, he states that they must learn how to be friendly and respectful across various social contexts, and hold the norms and principles shared by the community (though he believes that the latter should not be strictly enforced).

Summary of Main Claims

• States should provide relevant reasons when withholding benefits that go beyond human rights (weak cosmopolitanism argument).
• In a democracy, collective self-determination is a crucial aspect; thus, it also entails that members of the democratic nation should be able to decide whom to include in their population (so that they can exercise their territorial jurisdiction).
• Some immigrants are given citizenship rights since the state ought to be fair: they have a duty to address refugee claims and particularity claims.
• Irregular migrants can be granted citizenship rights and permanent residence once they have physically occupied the state’s territory for a sufficient period of time. However, this should only be granted once they have both socially and civically integrated.

Challenges

Although fair treatment of refugees are important, it could be challenging when very large number of them have claims to enter the democratic state’s territory more than the state is willing to accept. Despite the challenge, Miller stresses that fair treatment of refugees is still the most important aspect when it comes to a defensible immigration system.

Sources

1. David Miller, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, “Stranger in our midst: an overview” - 2017-11-02, accessed on 2024–06-23