Chandran Kukathas – författare

A compelling account of the threat immigration control poses to the citizens of free societies Immigration is often seen as a danger to western liberal democracies because it threatens to undermine their fundamental values, most notably freedom and national self-determination. In this book, however, Chandran Kukathas argues that the greater threat comes not from immigration but from immigration control.Kukathas shows that immigration control is not merely about preventing outsiders from moving across borders. It is about controlling what outsiders do once in a society: whether they work, reside, study, set up businesses, or share their lives with others. But controlling outsiders—immigrants or would-be immigrants—requires regulating, monitoring, and sanctioning insiders, those citizens and residents who might otherwise hire, trade with, house, teach, or generally associate with outsiders. The more vigorously immigration control is pursued, the more seriously freedom is diminished. The search for control threatens freedom directly and weakens the values upon which it relies, notably equality and the rule of law. Kukathas demonstrates that the imagined gains from efforts to control immigration are illusory, for they do not promote economic prosperity or social solidarity. Nor does immigration control bring self-determination, since the apparatus of control is an international institutional regime that increases the power of states and their agencies at the expense of citizens. That power includes the authority to determine who is and is not an insider: to define identity itself.Looking at past and current practices across the world, Immigration and Freedom presents a critique of immigration control as an institutional reality, as well as an account of what freedom means—and why it matters.

Professor George Klosko, Department of Politics, University of Virginia

This major new Handbook provides a definitive state-of-the-art review to political theory, past and present. It offers a complete guide to all the main areas and fields of political and philosophical inquiry today by the world's leading theorists.

The Handbook is divided into five parts which together serve to illustrate:

- the diversity of political theorizing

- the substantive theories that provide an over-aching analysis of the nature/or justification of the state and political life

- the political theories that have been either formulated or resurgent in recent years

- the current state of the central debates within contemporary political theory

- the history of western political thought and its interpretations

- traditions in political thought outside a western perspective.

The Handbook of Political Theory marks a benchmark publication at the cutting edge of its field. It is essential reading for all students and academics of political theory and political philosophy around the world.

After some friendly pestering from six of his students curious about his thinking about immigration, a philosophy professor invites them to present their own ideas to him over a series of meetings throughout the term. This book is about their conversations.

These dialogues introduce the reader to the most important ethical and political questions about immigration. They begin by considering the claim that significant levels of immigration pose a threat to the very civilization of the West, where the immigration issue is a particularly vexed one. The chapters that follow consider the economics of immigration, whether or not the state is justified in its efforts—or even obliged—to control immigration, and whether everyone has a right to move or if only refugees can make so strong a claim. The final chapter considers the implications of a philosophy of immigration on the ideal of an open society. Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on addressing the conceptual questions that are vital for making any headway in understanding practical issues. What is a refugee? What are rights? What is an open society? Indeed, what is immigration?

Key Features:

After some friendly pestering from six of his students curious about his thinking about immigration, a philosophy professor invites them to present their own ideas to him over a series of meetings throughout the term. This book is about their conversations.

These dialogues introduce the reader to the most important ethical and political questions about immigration. They begin by considering the claim that significant levels of immigration pose a threat to the very civilization of the West, where the immigration issue is a particularly vexed one. The chapters that follow consider the economics of immigration, whether or not the state is justified in its efforts—or even obliged—to control immigration, and whether everyone has a right to move or if only refugees can make so strong a claim. The final chapter considers the implications of a philosophy of immigration on the ideal of an open society. Throughout the book, there is a strong emphasis on addressing the conceptual questions that are vital for making any headway in understanding practical issues. What is a refugee? What are rights? What is an open society? Indeed, what is immigration?

Key Features: