Chandran Kukathas, "Immigration and Freedom" (Princeton UP, 2021)
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What is the central theme of Chandran Kukathas' book *Immigration and Freedom*?
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Hello, thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talise, I'm professor of philosophy at Vandal Butt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Chandrin Kukathas. Chandrin is the Lee Kong Shian Professor of Political Science and the Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University. His research engages with central questions in social and political philosophy, including questions regarding toleration, multiculturalism, political authority, and social justice. His new book has just been published with Princeton University Press. It's titled Immigration and Freedom.
Now, discussions of the ethics and the politics of immigration tend to focus on those seeking entry into a new society. We ask whether a country has the right to exclude those who would like to relocate within it. We explore the moral implications of more or less restrictive policies concerning immigration, often with a view towards the plight of the immigrants or refugees and the perils of their statelessness. These are of course important questions, but But Kukathus asks us also to examine the ways in which a state's immigration policies are exertions of control over its domestic population. It's often overlooked that a state's exercise of its supposed right to exclude always involves the exercise of power over its own citizens.
So we should ask, are these exercises justifiable? Moreover, the entire issue is inevitably con couched in concepts like citizen, native, domestic, foreign, immigrant, border, and sovereignty. But these concepts are notoriously slippery. So as usual, we have a lot to talk about. A full slate as it were. But why don't we begin as we normally do with our guest. Hello, Chandron, how are you? Hi, Bob. Good to be here. Well, thank you so much for joining me. Um, so the book is really fantastic, but before we get to talking about immigration and freedom, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Well, I'm an immigrant, uh, qu quite obviously in a way, because uh I'm uh here in in Singapore. I was I was born in Malaysia, uh ended up in Australia where I became a citizen after fifteen years or so, and uh have been a citizen of Australia for I guess about forty years. But s since uh my time in Australia I've lived in the United States, in uh the UK. I was professor of uh political theory at the London School of Economics, and then I moved to Singapore about two years ago. So I guess that's a pretty important part of my um my my persona. Uh I uh also grew up in a in a family of uh of immigrants in a way because my grandparents all were immigrants from Sri Lanka from were Jaffna Tamils.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central theme of Chandran Kukathas' book *Immigration and Freedom*?
0:00–7:18
2
How does Kukathas' personal immigration journey influence his analysis of immigration policy?
7:18–15:35
3
What is the meaning of the poem that imagines needing a visa to fall in love?
15:35–24:22
4
How did the British Empire’s treatment of its subjects illustrate state control over domestic populations?
24:22–32:55
5
In what ways do immigration controls create inequality among a state’s own citizens?
32:55–41:06
6
Why does the cultural‑integrity justification for restricting immigration fall short?
41:06–49:02
7
How does the book link immigration control to broader questions about freedom?
49:02–57:27
8
What final conclusions does Kukathas draw about the societal impact of immigration policies?
57:27–1:02:09
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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