The Ethics of Migration Policies: from justice to humanity?

This article discusses two primary trends in current migration policies: i.e. the regularisation of people's immigration status or the granting of a legal residence status, mainly on the basis of long term (unauthorised) residence and the prohibition of expulsion if this exposed a person to a cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in his or her country of origin. Although the origin and rationale for both policies differ, from an ethical and legal perspective they do converge on one point, i.e. they impose on the state a special responsibility for individuals that reside in their territory, irrespective of their being formally authorised to do so.
In the first place, we explain that political theorists dealing with the ethics of migration often ignore these issues or fail to deal with them in an adequate way. In the second, we suggest that an alternative moral justification for these policies can be found in Robert Goodin s argument that we have a special duty to protect the vulnerable, preventing the exploitation of vulnerabilities and assuming a special responsibility to the people who are particularly vulnerable to the results of our actions and choices.