Migration Ethics and Open Borders

Political scientist Joseph Carens on immigration, political realities and philosophy

Prof. Dr. Joseph Carens, Professor of Political Theory at the University of Toronto, Canada, will speak on migration ethics on 5 November. The evening lecture in English entitled “Immigration, Political Realities, and Philosophy” will take place at 6 pm in lecture theatre JO 1, Johannisstraße 4, as part of the 22nd Münster Lecture in Philosophy. Visiting Fellow at the Cluster of Excellence in the winter semester 2018/19 at the invitation of philosopher Dr. Matthias Hoesch, Joseph Carens is regarded as one of the most renowned authors in the as yet young discipline of migration ethics. In public debates he argues for open borders.

In his lecture, Joseph Carens will address various aspects of his book “The Ethics of Immigration”, published by Oxford University Press in 2013, and also include examples from current German integration and refugee politics. His lecture will examine the question of how the individual can behave ethically in questions of migration, and the limits of such a perspective, which only takes the given circumstances into consideration. He will then discuss the extent to which political philosophy can bring about a change of perspective, talk about the relationship between theory and practice, as well as about the limits of philosophy as a source of political assessments. (sca/vvm)