Immigration Restrictions and the Right to Avoid Unwanted Obligations

Javier Hidalgo

doi:https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v8i2.162

Volume 8, Number 2
October 2014

DISCUSSION

Immigration Restrictions and the Right to Avoid Unwanted Obligations

Volume 8, Number 2, October 2014, Pages 1–9

https://doi.org/10.26556/jesp.v8i2.162

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Abstract

Michael Blake presents a novel argument for the claim that, if states have obligations to protect the human rights of everyone in their jurisdiction, then some immigration restrictions are morally justified. Blake argues that citizens acquire new obligations to protect the human rights of immigrants once these immigrants enter a state’s territorial jurisdiction. But Blake contends that people have rights to avoid unwanted obligations and that citizens can permissibly restrict immigration in order to prevent immigrants from imposing unwanted obligations on them. In this paper, I will show that Blake’s argument for immigration restrictions is unsound. In particular, I will argue that it is false that we have rights to avoid unwanted obligations.

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