The Rights of the Stranger: Justice, Responsibility and the Ethics of Migration

Thesis advisor: David HollenbachTransnational migration presents a problem for universal human rights. Because migrants do not have full citizenship in their countries of residence, they are left out of the distribution of social goods within a nation-state. Contemporary theories of justice largely remain trapped in the framework of the "bounded society," which members enter by birth and leave by death. The dissertation argues that the protection of universal human rights depends on turning particular relationships of exploitation into relationships of co-responsibility. The dissertation draws on two sources of Christian ethics, the Bible and Catholic social teaching on migration in order to maintain both the importance of the unity of the human family, the universality of human rights, and the importance of the political community. The work of three political philosophers suggests that in order to respond to transnational migration, an ethics of migration must maintain both the universality of human rights and the moral significance of the political community, but must discard the ideal of the bounded society. The resources of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament indicate that care for the stranger must be foundational to a Christian ethics of migration. Catholic social teaching on migration maintains both the universality of human rights and the right of the state to control its borders, but ultimately fails to address whether and in what circumstances the state should prioritize its citizens over migrants and potential migrants. The dissertation uses Jon Sobrino's reflections on Christian solidarity in order to address this lacuna in Catholic social teaching on migration. It argues that the political community must protect the human rights of migrants because, in most cases, migrants are in relationships with citizens.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009.Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.Discipline: Theology