Migration and discrimination – theoretical perspectives

Discrimination is one factor which operates amongst many in the social inclusion or exclusion of minorities and migrants. All liberal democracies guarantee fairly unqualified rights to freedom of internal movement and emigration but defend state powers to control immigration. The legitimacy of immigration control has been much discussed among political theorists. Old controversies between advocates of open borders and state rights to limit territorial admission have not been resolved, but recently debates have shifted towards more particular questions of special admission claims and constraints on state discretion.