To open, or not to open (the borders), that is the question!24 – The immigration of labour migrants at the crossroads of cosmopolitanism and communitarianism

Abstract

The paper tackles the issues related to the entry of labour immigrants in contemporary political theory. The author analyses how cosmopolitanism and communitarianism, as two opposed theoretical approaches deal with labour immigration. The objective of the paper is to establish whether they are reconcilable in some elements despite the dichotomy in their theoretical fundamentals. For that purpose, the paper first analyses the cosmopolitan approach through the discourse ethics and the open border arguments from the perspective of ethical universalism and the equal moral value of all human beings. It then juxtaposes them to the communitarian arguments for limiting the entry of labour immigrants from the perspective of ontological, deontological, social-political, legal-political and ethical arguments with which the receiving community justifies its right to close the borders. The paper establishes the meeting points between cosmopolitanism and communitarianism in the modes of defining priorities and rules for the entry of various categories of immigrants and in the necessity for justifying the exclusion rules to those to whom the entry has been limited or denied.

Key words: immigration, admission of labour migrants, receiving community, cosmopolitanism, communitarianism