23 min
Victor Tadros on Refuge and Aid Migration Ethics
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- Philosophy
The UK government is, once again, promising to get tough on migration. The Nationality and Asylum Bill, introduced to parliament by Home Secretary Preti Patel, is designed to make it as hard as possible for people to claim asylum. When challenged, the government likes to talk up its contributions to foreign aid. But what do aid and migration have to do with each other? Well, perhaps the logic is this. There are many people in need throughout the world and most of them do not migrate. By providing aid, rather than admitting migrants, governments can help more people or people in greater need. But do migrants have some special claim to priority? Victor Tadros, from Warwick University, argues that, for the most part, migrants have no special claim. Yet he also insists he is pro-migration. So, what are the relative claims of migrants against others in need? Is there a trade-off between refuge and aid? And does Victor worry about an overlap between his views and those of anti-migration politicians?
The UK government is, once again, promising to get tough on migration. The Nationality and Asylum Bill, introduced to parliament by Home Secretary Preti Patel, is designed to make it as hard as possible for people to claim asylum. When challenged, the government likes to talk up its contributions to foreign aid. But what do aid and migration have to do with each other? Well, perhaps the logic is this. There are many people in need throughout the world and most of them do not migrate. By providing aid, rather than admitting migrants, governments can help more people or people in greater need. But do migrants have some special claim to priority? Victor Tadros, from Warwick University, argues that, for the most part, migrants have no special claim. Yet he also insists he is pro-migration. So, what are the relative claims of migrants against others in need? Is there a trade-off between refuge and aid? And does Victor worry about an overlap between his views and those of anti-migration politicians?
23 min