Publication Date
Fall 12-10-2025
Degree Level
B.A.
Program
Philosophy
First Advisor
Dr. Erika Grimm
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis addresses the current discourse in philosophy—specifically, immigration ethics—that harms migrants, would-be migrants, and Latinx people in general. It proposes that these harms can be healed by taking seriously the contributions of Latinx feminists and paying special attention to spiritual activism. The thesis first introduces the open-borders debate in the philosophical literature and the harmful language and framing that affects migrant autonomy within the debate, specifically by looking at the work of Christopher Heath Wellman as a representative example. It reveals how, while border enforcement often results in literal mass casualties among immigrants, the language and framing around immigration in works like Wellman’s itself does harm to migrants. Drawing on the works of Latinx feminist philosophers such as Mariana Ortega and Gloria Anzaldúa, the thesis shows that the dehumanization such discourse enacts constitutes a casualty insofar as it results in the “death” of a migrant’s autonomy to find their own identity. The solution to the casualty proposed in this thesis brings together the works of Anzaldúa and French feminist philosopher Simone Weil, which theorize the role of spirituality in social and political organizing through spiritual activism.
Recommended Citation
Chicago Style
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.