City Research Online

Abstract

This article defends illegal immigration from the Global South to the Global North, while being agnostic about the right of the state to control borders. This argument is based on two premises: A) cosmopolitan accounts of global distributive justice and b) the human right to resistance. Given that global poverty is an avoidable and intransigent violation of human rights, resistance is justifiable. Illegal immigration is a form of "infrapolitical" resistance that is comparable to fugitive slaves. Like these slave, people living in extreme poverty experience a durable form of domination in which escape is possible, even though it is highly risky. If one thinks that slave did nothing wrong, then one cannot condemn the illegal immigrant.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2018 Presses de Sciences Po. All rights reserved.
Subjects:	J Political Science J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > International Politics
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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