Thursday, March 14, 2013

The moraliity of immigration policy


Assume that being moral means accepting  obligations  toward others – as distinct from being amoral, and concerned exclusively with one’s own welfare.  Outside of family and such as  contractual obligations, there is no logical  reason to suppose that  those obligations differ toward different people.  There would be no reason to assign a lesser right to your consideration to an  African  peasant,   than to Devonshire farmworker.

The implications of that logic for the morality of  immigration and overseas aid  policy would seem to be: 
-          --  either  that immigration policy should not prevent the African peasant from coming to Britain;
-          -  or that overseas aid should compensate the African peasant for his loss of the advantages of doing so.

(UK overseas aid now amounts to about 0.6 percent of GDP,  or about £150 a year per  person)

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