The casualties of the open-borders debate: Latinx feminist voices on the ethics of migration

Authors

Amely Logan, St. Mary's University

Files

Contributor

Erika Grimm

Digital Publisher

Digital Commons at St. Mary's University

Publication Date

Spring 2025

Keywords

philosophical perspectives ; immigration; open borders

Description

To consider philosophical perspectives on immigration restrictions and the consequences of the open borders debate more generally.

• The open borders debate within the ethics of migration consists of arguments from philosophers who justify states’ rights to restrict immigration and arguments from philosophers who believe states should have open borders.

• Christopher Heath Wellman’s “Immigration and Freedom of Association,” where he argues that states do in fact have a right to exclude immigrants from their territories. I highlight how the language and framing around migrants in works, like Wellman’s, itself does harm to migrants.

• While border enforcement results in mass casualties among immigrants, I argue that social terms that characterize immigrants as “illegals” and “aliens” constitute another type of causality migrants face that is overlooked in the open borders debate.

• By taking seriously Latinx feminist voices, like those of Mariana Ortega and Gloria Anzaldúa, that are often neglected within the ethics of migration, it becomes clearer to understand the immigrant experience and difficulties immigrants face due to the way in which they are portrayed in the United States.

Format

pdf

Size

1 page

City

San Antonio, Texas

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.