Justice for migrants and refugees: a discussion of Gillian Brock’s Justice for People on the Move by the author of No Refuge

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is part of an author-meets-author symposium that focuses on my most recent book, No Refuge, and Gillian Brock’s new book, Justice for People on the Move. Both books focus on the ethical implications of how we respond to migration flows. What makes some responses to migrants and refugees acceptable and others not? What moral obligations, if any, do we have to migrants and refugees? Both Justice for People on the Move and No Refuge provide frameworks to answer questions like these and to guide people who are interested in making ethical policies around migration and refugees. While we share the same broad goal – articulating the norms that will help policy makers, leaders and citizens to respond more justly to migrants and refugees around the world – we differ in our approaches, our methodologies and ultimately in how we ground our claims for justice. In this article, which focuses on our two recent books alone, I seek to highlight our common ground as well as noting some of our differences.