The Economics of International Labor Migration and the Case for Global Distributive Justice in Liberal Political Theory

摘要

As Philippe Legrain observes, advances in transportation and telecommunication technology, together with the "individualism" fostered by the spread of liberal ideals, have allowed us to "roam our newly open world more freely than before" and have "undermined the tyranny of geography which tied people to a place and loosened the shackles of nationalism which dictated that people in one place should all be alike." In this globalizing world, he suggests, "[o]ur efforts to keep poor people out" of rich countries "are a form of global apartheid," and "if our conscience is not sufficient to persuade us to change course, then our self-interest surely ought to." I have argued that a survey of the evidence on the economic effects of migration supports these normative claims.