The moral complexity of the border: A critical examination of the normative foundations of admission and exclusion

Skelhorn-French, Jacob ORCID: 0009-0003-5999-4169 (2025). The moral complexity of the border: A critical examination of the normative foundations of admission and exclusion. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

It is common in popular and policy discussions to assume that states possess the near-unilateral right to set and enforce their own immigration policies without examining or articulating the underlying normative justifications. In recent years, various liberal theorists have examined the normative foundations of border admission and exclusion. While these approaches are unified in criticising particular border policies, they are highly polarised between those who view nearly all immigration restrictions as unjust and those who broadly support state discretionary control of immigration. This thesis examines the constraints that justice claims place on Western liberal democratic states’ immigration policies and argues that we cannot take for granted the claim that states possess a ‘right to exclude. It then argues that this broader debate in normative political theory suffers from two problems: (1) it uses a partial and idealised conception of the border, and (2) it offers an overly narrow response to the questions of whose freedom and what constitutes freedom. Finally, I argue that immigration policy must be constituted with reference to the freedom of both citizens and non-citizens based on their situationally defined claims.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

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