Goldstone, Zara Charlotte Zainab;
(2025)
Postcolonial justice and migration.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
Political philosophers of migration usually theorise migration ahistorically, not considering whether would-be migrants have a pre-existing relationship with their potential host state, including whether their home country was colonised by that state. Because of this ahistorical analysis, many political philosophers then argue that states have a general right to exclude ‘voluntary’ migrants. In my thesis I show that taking seriously the legacy of colonial injustices reveals that former colonising states’ right to exclude voluntary migrants is undermined when it comes to those migrating from postcolonial states. Specifically, I defend two cases for postcolonial migration rights: an undertheorised reparative one for the distributive legacy of colonialism, and a novel relational egalitarian one for colonialism’s legacy of status inequality. As for the reparative case for postcolonial migration rights, I show that former colonising states have a duty to offer members of their former colonies the right to migrate as reparation for the contemporary global poverty and inequality that colonial exploitation has engendered today. Firstly, migration would constitute material reparations, both for the individuals who migrated, and also for those who chose not to migrate through remittances. Secondly, offering members of former colonies the right to migrate would be a powerful means of making symbolic reparations for exploitation, of former colonising states acknowledging that their key institutions are funded with colonially extracted wealth. As for the relational egalitarian case for postcolonial migration rights, I argue that former colonising states have a duty to offer members of former colonies the right to migrate to help to overcome global cultural and racial hierarchies that are a legacy of colonialism, hierarchies that deny the capacity of members of former colonies to produce value, in particular valuable culture. I show how former colonising states offering members of former colonies migration rights could constitute a pertinent expression of their equal status, particularly their capacity to produce value, to the extent that they are welcome to enter into and settle in former metropoles.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Postcolonial justice and migration |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Political Science |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10204347 |
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