Abstract
This article presents the case for granting permanent residency to those experiencing significant risks throughout the COVID-19 pandemic to increase citizens’ safety. Increasing safety comes in many forms: directly, as when doctors, paramedics, and nurses assist patients, and indirectly, as when farmworkers produce life-sustaining food, garbage collectors protect sanitation, and social workers respond to emergency calls. A range of such workers are owed gratitude-derived duties from citizens that are best fulfilled via permanent residency. I defend this claim first for authorized migrants and then for unauthorized migrants, whose presence citizens would consent to if they were aware of the benefits they provide. Finally, I defend the claim that many frontline workers not owed gratitude are owed duties of justice, acquiring rights similar to those of permanent residency.
Highlights
During the spread of COVID-19, Nancy Silva was picking clementines in California, cognizant of her close proximity to coworkers
A similar reform was instituted in the UK for medical workers, with year-long visa extensions offered to National Health Service (NHS) employees
Some have called for permanent residency for all on the front line, including sanitation and agricultural workers
Summary
During the spread of COVID-19, Nancy Silva was picking clementines in California, cognizant of her close proximity to coworkers. This article presents the case for granting permanent residency to frontline workers, defined here as those experiencing substantial risks throughout the pandemic to substantially increase citizens’ safety. In the second half of this article, I demonstrate that these alternative values ground rights to permanent residency for many frontline workers who lack gratitude-based grounds, with the value of equality apt at demonstrating that unauthorized migrants lacking citizens’ hypothetical consent would be exploited if denied permanent residency. These values do not apply to many frontline workers who do have gratitude-based grounds. Mollie Gerver have a duty, beyond COVID-19, to increase the number of individuals who are granted permanent residency
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