CIAO DATE: 02/07

Ethics & International Affairs
Annual Journal of the
Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs

Fall 2006, Vol 20, No. 3

 

Articles

• Immigration, Multiculturalism, and the Welfare State by Will Kymlicka, Keith Banting

  Popular opposition to immigration is rooted in many factors. In this essay, we focus on one specific issue that has become prominent in recent debates—namely, the fear that the welfare state is being undermined by the impact of increasing ethnic and racial diversity. There are actually two concerns here: first, that ethnic and racial diversity as such makes it more difficult to sustain redistributive social policies because it is difficult to generate feelings of national solidarity and trust across ethnic and racial lines, and second, that the “multiculturalism” policies adopted to recognize or accommodate immigrant groups tend to further undermine national solidarity and trust. If either of these hypotheses were true, the very idea of a “multicultural welfare state,” a welfare state that respects and accommodates diversity, would be almost a contradiction in terms. We review the existing evidence and suggest that both hypotheses are overstated. The evidence to date suggests that there is no inherent tendency for either immigrant ethnic diversity or multiculturalism policies to erode the welfare state. We conclude with some speculation about the implications of this evidence for debates about the rights of noncitizens.

• Cosmopolitanism and the “Brain Drain” by Devesh Kapur, John McHale

  Many developing countries are experiencing high rates of emigration of their highly skilled citizens. This essay asks if a cosmopolitan—who we take to be generally supportive of freer international migration—should worry about the adverse effects on those remaining behind in poor countries. We document the extent of skilled outflows, discuss the causes and consequences of those outflows, and offer principles to guide a cosmopolitan policy response. We argue that skilled emigration harms long-run institutional development. The right response, however, is not to shut down the one reasonably liberal element of the international migration regime but to look for ways to make international migration work better for development.

• Holes in the Rights Framework: Racial Discrimination, Citizenship, and the Rights of Noncitizens by James A. Goldston

  In recent years, states have increasingly exploited their traditional discretion over matters of citizenship to carve out significant exceptions to the universality of human rights protection. This primarily occurs in two ways: through denial and deprivation of citizenship and through the imposition of illegitimate distinctions between citizens and noncitizens. The results of such actions may be physical expulsion, disenfranchisement, exclusion from access to public benefits, and acts of violence and discrimination. The potential for abuse is heightened for racial and ethnic minorities. Racial discrimination is a major cause of denationalization and restrictive access to citizenship. And citizenship status is often used as a proxy for racial grounds in justifying denial of other human rights. The treatment of noncitizens compellingly tests societies’ commitments to the rule of law. This essay explores how human rights norms—particularly the body of law that forbids discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin—can be deployed to combat the worst effects of citizenship denial and ill-treatment of non-citizens. It recommends that the problem be addressed through three principal activities: documentation and public education; clarification and distillation of legal standards related to citizenship; and enforcement of existing norms, including those prohibiting racial discrimination.

SYMPOSIUM: Crimes Against Humanity

• Crimes Against Humanity
  Larry May

• Beyond Moral Minimalism
  David Luban

• Against Impunity
  Jamie Mayerfeld

• The Persistent Fiction of Harm to Humanity
  Andrew Altman

• Humanity, International Crime, and the Rights of Defendants
  Larry May

ADDITIONAL CONTENT

RECENT BOOKS ON ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

• NOMOS XLVII: Humanitarian Intervention, Terry Nardin and Melissa S. Williams, EDS.
  REVIEWED BY MATHIAS RISSE

• International Human Rights and Islamic Law, Mashood A. Baderin
  REVIEWED BY FARID ABDEL-NOUR

• Human Rights and Gender Violence, Sally Engle Merry
  REVIEWED BY KIMBERLEY HUTCHINGS

• Making Whole What Has Been Smashed: On Reparation Politics, John C. Torpey
  REVIEWED BY CHRISTIANE WILKE

• International Human Rights and Islamic Law, Mashood A. Baderin
  REVIEWED BY FARID ABDEL-NOUR

• Human Rights and Gender Violence, Sally Engle Merry
  REVIEWED BY KIMBERLEY HUTCHINGS

• The Political Philosophy of Cosmopolitanism, Gillian Brock and Harry Brighouse, EDS.
  REVIEWED BY AMY E. ECKERT

• The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time, Jeffrey Sachs, Foreword By Bono
  REVIEWED BY SANJAY RUPARELIA