On Immigration and Refugees

Sir Michael Dummett (1925–2011) was Wykeham Professor of Logic at the University of Oxford. He was knighted for his 'services to philosophy and to racial justice' in 1999. His pathbreaking books on the philosophy of language and mathematics made him one of the most significant British philosophers of the last century and he was a leading campaigner for racial tolerance and equality.

“Makes the case meticulously ... a terrible indictment of modern British immigration policy.” - The Economist“Passionately argued and shot through with a sense of urgency ... an invigorating read.” - The Tablet“Acutely spots a blank in the mentality of earlier political philosophers who ‘have seldom asked what obligations a state has towards those who are not its citizens’, and argues powerfully against those who ‘hold that we have at most only negative duties towards strangers: that, for example, we may not kill them, but have no duty to protect them from being killed.’” - The Evening Standard“A lucid philosophical discussion of the ethical principles at stake in matters of immigration and asylum, and a sharp review of the historical ways they have been manhandled.” - New Left Review“Its greatest contribution is to demolish the arguments uses by politicians and the media, and to expose their implicit racism... It would be hard to find another short book which analyses the causes and development of racism so clearly, and shows the connivance in fostering racial prejudice of successive governments of all parties.” - Local Government Studies

• Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Sarah Fine Preface Part 1: Principles 1. Some General Principles 2. The Duties of a State to Refugees 3. The Duties of a State to Immigrants 4. Grounds of Refusal 5. Citizenship Part 2: History 6. How Immigration was Made a Menace in Britain 7. From Immigrants to Refugees 8. Racism in Other European Countries and Immigration into Them. Index