Immigration Law (Kaushal) — Presumptions on Boundaries and Closure
Kaushal argues that at the bottom of all immigration laws lie presumptions on boundaries and closure, that boundaries act as gatekeepers to membership, and that citizenship is the most important legal membership.
Who Are We?
In the Shifting Borders, the author argues that borders are public statements “about who we are now, who we want to become and who is worthy to join us”. In this way, the very notion of a gatekeeper that controls the entry of people vividly supports Kaushals claim that immigration laws lie in certain presumptions about boundaries and closure.
Boundaries to Keep Out
This is further compounded by the authors' points in Status in Canada that citizenship is also a weapon against outsiders, those economically disadvantaged or disabled. Hence, boundaries will ensure a certain kind of people come in while keeping out others. Moreover, the very concept of self-determination espouses that a community can exclude who they want and let in who they want.
Self-Determination: Vanuatu Case Study
As explored in Ethics of Immigration, self-determination is the foundation of liberal political philosophy, in this way, the right to associate is tightly tied to the right to self-determination. One could argue that even in the fact that some states are selling their citizenship such as in Canada, the Vanuatu article is also a practice of exercising your right to the freedom of where to live and the exercise of self-determination from a state selling passports.
In Vanuatu, citizenship for sale seemed to be catering to fugitives, politicians, and disgraced people. In this way, being able to buy citizenship can help one avoid political and legal repercussions in their home country.
While a citizen of another country can have access and resources to a more liberal economy. Or reap the benefits of the access and opportunities to be gained from its previous visa exemption which gave an ample amount of days — up to 90–180 — access to the European Union. However, as of 2023, the EU has suspended its visa due to the risks posed by the Golden Passport scheme.
The EU basically said that there was an extremely low rejection rate… and there were doubts about the reliability of the security and due diligence. Ultimately, it is a threat to their community.
If it smells too good to be true…
A Valued Good
Most importantly, it has been argued that political membership in a stable and affluent country has been deemed to be a valued good.
Many countries are trying to attract highly skilled migrants by showing a promise to acquire citizenship in itself as a competitive tool to attract and retain the knowledge of migrants — in this way citizenship is seen as the legal membership that matters the most as it is one of the most valued reasons for a skilled migrants to leave their home, and their families, and move to another.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — -
- Ayelet Shachar, The Shifting Border: Legal Cartographies of Migration and Mobility, 2020, pg 9 , week 3
- Jamie Chai Yun Liew and Donald Galloway, “Status in Canada”, 2015, pg 81, week 3
- Ibid pg 82
- Sarah Fine, “The Ethics of Immigration: Self-Determination and the Right to Exclude,”, 2013, pg 258, week 3
- Eric Ward and Kate Lyons, “Citizenship for Sale: Fugitives, Politicians, and Disgraced
- Businesspeople Buying Vanuatu Passports,” 2021, week 2
