Immigration
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Abstract
How should liberal democracies treat noncitizens who are already physically present in their territory? This chapter holds that immigrants should get rights because they are here. Immigration scholars fear that this approach leads to the “soft inside, hard outside” view. If presence gives rights to immigrants (soft inside), current members have a strong incentive to keep newcomers out to protect the group’s identity (hard outside). However, when citizenship relies on respecting place-specific duties, it is possible to detach citizens’ rights from group identity. This makes citizenship compatible with wider mobility and even open borders. The chapter argues that anyone present in a territory has a right to stay because their presence is a condition for current citizens to fulfill their duties to third parties, but the state has a limited right to deny entry to those who would not be able to fulfill their place-specific duties when they enter.