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Political Philosophy, Migration, and Methodological Nationalism

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Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility

Part of the book series: Mobility & Politics ((MPP))

Abstract

This chapter explains in detail the cognitive bias of methodological nationalism and shows how it has shaped much work in the political philosophy of migration. Methodological nationalism combines the assumptions of sedentariness, state sovereignty, territorial borders, and membership encouraged by nation-building projects. Political philosophers have for the most part assumed that the site of justice is a closed nation-state in which people enter by birth and exit by death. Though in recent years philosophers have begun to shake off the methodological nationalism of their discipline, it remains a powerful influence that has distorted reflection on the ethics of migration and discouraged reflection on forms of exclusion that take place within, outside, and across state territorial borders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Indeed, Rawls almost entirely neglects the topic of immigration, suggesting that once the major causes of immigration—persecution, the denial of human rights, starvation, and population pressure—are removed, immigration ceases to be an issue for political philosophy: “The problem of immigration is not, then, simply left aside, but is eliminated as a serious problem in a realistic utopia” (Rawls 1999b: 9).

  2. 2.

    Though he did not explicitly use the term “methodological nationalism,” Anthony Giddens also deserves recognition as an early critic of methodological nationalist tendencies (Giddens 1973: 265; c.f. Chernilo 2011; Dumitru 2014).

  3. 3.

    In identifying these features I draw on a paper by Speranta Dumitru (2014) that identifies three versions of methodological nationalism: state-centrism (in which the nation-state is taken as the primary and most important unit of analysis), territorialism (in which space is defined by national territories), and groupism (in which society is equated with the nation-state).

  4. 4.

    As Carole Pateman’s The Sexual Contract (1988) and Charles W. Mill’s The Racial Contract (1997) reveal, the metaphors and narratives of social contract theory have always had an exclusionary function and an ideological effect that enables readers to ignore or oppress those not party to the contract.

  5. 5.

    For my analysis, I draw on my reading of some of the most influential monographs, edited collections, and survey articles on the ethics of migration, including Barry and Goodin (1992), Blake (2005), Carens (2013), Cole (2000), Fine and Ypi (2016), Higgins (2013), Miller (2016), Pevnick (2011), Seglow (2005), Wellman and Cole (2011), and Wellman (2015).

  6. 6.

    The other “founding” text in the ethics of immigration is arguably Michael Walzer’s chapter on membership in Spheres of Justice (1983). Ackerman (1980) and Nett (1971) in some respects anticipated Carens’ arguments, but neither received widespread attention.

  7. 7.

    Ann Dummett (1992: 173) anticipated Cole’s point about the need for symmetry between immigration and emigration.

  8. 8.

    In most of the chapter in The Ethics of Immigration, Carens assumes that states are morally entitled to considerable discretion over the admission of immigrants.

  9. 9.

    I present my position on the open border debate in Sager (2017).

  10. 10.

    Matters are somewhat different in the continental tradition influenced by Agamben, Delueze and Guattari, and Foucault—Thomas Nail’s important work (2015, 2016) comes to mind. This tradition exerts more influence in disciplines outside of philosophy.

  11. 11.

    I confess that this generalization also holds for my own edited collection The Ethics and Politics of Immigration: Core Issues and Emerging Trends (2016a).

  12. 12.

    Anthony Smith connected sociology’s Eurocentrism to its neglect of nationalism, noting that sociology “arose, after all, in countries with a fairly firmly entrenched sense of nationality, which was both clear-cut and dominant within the state apparatus and polity” (Smith 1983: 25). This led theorists to take nationalism for granted and instead to focus on socioeconomic structures rather than the evolution of nationalism.

  13. 13.

    For a sample of work on temporary migration, see Carens (2008), Lenard and Straehle (2011), Ottonelli and Torresi (2012), and Ruhs (2013).

  14. 14.

    Michael Clemens (2009) has advocated for replacing the pejorative hydraulic metaphor of “brain drain” with the more neutral “skill flow.” I concur (with the caveat that skill flow ask risks dehumanizing migrants by reducing them to human capital), but the phrase “brain drain” has unfortunately remained entrenched.

  15. 15.

    See Volpp (2000) and (2001) for valuable discussion of how anti-social behavior by native-born citizens identified with the majority is considered to be deviant, whereas similar types of behavior by groups identified as cultural minorities are treated as symptomatic of their cultural norms.

  16. 16.

    These topics have only recently begun to receive attention. On immigration enforcement, see Mendoza (2015) and Sager (2017); on immigrant detention, see Silverman (2016); and on deportation, see Lenard (2015).

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  1. Philosophy, Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA

    Alex Sager

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Sager, A. (2018). Political Philosophy, Migration, and Methodological Nationalism. In: Toward a Cosmopolitan Ethics of Mobility. Mobility & Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65759-2_2

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