U.S. Alien Admissions: a Normative Analysis (Immigration, Refugees, United States).

Abstract

This dissertation examines the bases for a nation's alien admission policy, with special attention given to U.S. policy. Part I focuses on how leading political philosophers have either addressed, or might address, the question of alien admissions. Individual chapters are devoted to Michael Walzer, John Rawls (with an examination of the critiques of Rawls' theory by both Brain Barry and Charles Beitz), Peter Singer and Henry Shue, and Bruce Ackerman. The last chapter in Part I traces the evolution of the concept of an American community, as it relates to alien admissions, through a series of Supreme Court decisions. Part II attempts to frame an alien admission system. The first chapter in this section, Chapter Six, examines the question of whether individual citizens have moral obligations in the international arena, and the unique problems caused by alien admissions. The next two chapters introduce the two principles that form the basis of the proposed alien admission system--the Harm Principle (HP) and the Basic Rights Principle (BRP). Both principles seek to maintain the communal processes in a society, but both principles also seek to protect the autonomy of individuals living in other l and s. The HP states that individuals have a right not to be harmed and those who have caused harm have a special duty to make restitution. The BRP seeks to aid those in great need, even if the nation providing aid has not been the cause of the need. The duty under the BRP is not as strong as that under the HP, and it is limited by a concept known as Fair Share. Chapter Nine uses a series of examples to show how the HP and the BRP would operate in terms of a nation's alien admission practices. Chapter Ten compares present U.S. immigration and refugee policy with the policy proposed. The ultimate conclusion is that the obligations that would be met under an alien admission system premised on the HP and the BRP are stronger than the obligations met under current U.S. policy.