CEPPA Talk – Jesse Tomalty (University of Bergen)

Title: Discrimination at the Border
Abstract: In selecting among prospective immigrants, it is widely accepted that states are morally permitted to differentiate on the basis of skill. By contrast, differentiating among prospective immigrants on the basis of (perceived) traits such as race, ethnicity, or religion is widely held to amount to wrongful discrimination. I argue that these views are in tension. This is because the strongest account of why race, ethnicity, and religion are not morally acceptable criteria for selecting immigrants also rules out selection based on skill. What all of these criteria have in common is that their application fails to respect the moral equality of prospective immigrants. Given that states are obligated to respect the moral equality of all persons, I argue that this implies that the set of morally acceptable criteria for selecting immigrants is narrower than many currently accept.