People, Places, and Plans
This chapter examines the question of what sorts of particular goods might ground a right to residency in a particular place. It considers three cases: that of affinity with a particular place; that of long-term undocumented residency in that place; and that of romantic partnership with someone from that place. The chapter argues that in none of these cases is it possible to ground a right in justice to residency simply upon the appeal to the person of that residency. In other areas of life, we accept that we are legitimately constrained by the possibilities left open to us by the choices of other agents; from the fact that I have an interest in moving to a particular community, we cannot infer that those already present have any duty to let us in. This discussion, however, demonstrates that the claims of justice and duty might not exhaust the moral concepts that ought to be brought to bear upon questions of migration.