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The Priority of Compatriots as a Challenge to Global Justice: The Case of Open Borders

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Challenging the Borders of Justice in the Age of Migrations

Part of the book series: Studies in Global Justice ((JUST,volume 18))

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Abstract

One of the main arguments used to advocate in favor of the current model of closed borders is known as priority of compatriots. According to this argument, a state would be entitled to control and limit the entry of foreigners into its territory because otherwise it could not maintain the socioeconomic system that allows to devote special attention to the needs of its less advantaged members. If it were not true that opening would undermine rich countries’ redistributive efforts and their schemes of social and economic justice, such an argument would no longer make sense. Yet, criticism to the priority of compatriots as justification for the closure of borders does not have to rest on the empirical level. Without denying the practical conflict between patriotic loyalties and global distributive responsibilities, I develop a critique to this argument analyzing whether these are strong enough to withstand the weight of the intrinsic value of all human beings and their most basic and urgent needs.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Take Gambia, for example. Over the last 10 years, the personal remittances emigrants have sent to their families have multiplied by four, and according to World Bank calculations, they currently represent no less than 22% of the country’s GDP. Against this, the entire agricultural sector , which provides income to 70% of the population, represents 30% of the GDP. On the percentage that remittances represent in the GDP of all countries in the world, see https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/BX.TRF.PWKR.DT.GD.ZS

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the R&D grant “Human rights and global justice in the context of international migrations” (FFI2013-42521-P) funded by the Spanish Program for the Promotion of Scientific and Technical Research for Excellence.

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  1. Philosophy of Law, University of Almería, Almería, Spain

    Federico Arcos

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  1. Federico Arcos
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Correspondence to Federico Arcos .

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  1. Institute of Philosophy, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Juan Carlos Velasco

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Nebrija University, Madrid, Spain

    MariaCaterina La Barbera

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Arcos, F. (2019). The Priority of Compatriots as a Challenge to Global Justice: The Case of Open Borders. In: Velasco, J., La Barbera, M. (eds) Challenging the Borders of Justice in the Age of Migrations. Studies in Global Justice, vol 18. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05590-5_3

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