What Immigrants Owe

Journal article

Lovett, Adam and Sharp, Daniel. (2021). What Immigrants Owe. Ergo : An Open Access Journal of Philosophy. 8(36), pp. 336-366. https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.2237
AuthorsLovett, Adam and Sharp, Daniel
Abstract

Unlike natural-born citizens, many immigrants have agreed to undertake political obligations. Many have sworn oaths of allegiance. Many, when they entered their adopted country, promised to obey the law. This paper is about these agreements. First, it’s about their validity. Do they actually confer political obligations? Second, it’s about their justifiability. Is it permissible to get immigrants to undertake such political obligations? Our answers are ‘usually yes’ and ‘probably not’ respectively. We first argue that these agreements give immigrants political obligations. We then argue that getting immigrants to undertake such obligations is morally wrong. This is because it makes immigrants’ political obligations more burdensome than those of natural-born citizens. We conclude that the practice of getting immigrants to undertake such obligations should be abolished.

Keywordsimmigration; political obligations; political authority; social contract theory; oaths of allegiance; promises
Year01 Jan 2021
JournalErgo : An Open Access Journal of Philosophy
Journal citation8 (36), pp. 336-366
PublisherMichigan Publishing
ISSN2330-4014
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.3998/ergo.2237
Web address (URL)https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/ergo/article/id/2237/
Open accessOpen access
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range336-366
Publisher's version
License
File Access Level
Open
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online29 Dec 2021
Publication process dates
Deposited03 Sep 2024
Additional information

License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0

Place of publicationUnited States
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