The Migration Policy Centre and GlobalCit are jointly hosting the following seminar with Rainer Bauböck who will present his work on ‘The Democratic Case for Immigration in the European Union’.
Abstract
In this talk, Rainer Bauböck will present three challenges to the view that democratic self-determination justifies immigration control. He proposes, first, that the reason why democratic states have immigration control powers is not that they are democratic, but that they are independent states. Exercising this power is legitimate when immigration control is needed to preserve the conditions for democratic self-government. Second, he will argue that democratic norms provide positive reasons for promoting free international movement and admission claims for family migrants, economic migrants and refugees. Third, he will suggest that current disputes over immigration policy in the European Union reflect deeper conflicts between open and closed conceptions of democracy. If this is correct, then choosing closure over openness may put the future of democracy itself at risk and should thus not be regarded as an issue of legitimate democratic self-determination
Chair
Andrew Geddes, Chair in Migration Studies, Director of the Migration Policy Centre