Paper Titles & Abstracts

Recently there has been a significant growth in migration to western liberal democracies. This led to major migration policy activity at national, regional and international levels. A debate took place based on the concepts of 'national interest' as well as security, welfare and identity. In this context, state practices are based on the assumption that states have no obligations to non-native citizens who reside within their territory (a position which I label as an "anything goes" approach to the citizens of other countries).This paper builds on my on-going research on the ethics of migration policy. I have previously (2010) theorised state behaviour by putting myself in the position of the policy-maker and asking: what information resources (positions, perspectives, discourses, target groups, etc.) does the policy-maker have or need to have for ethically orienting migration policies? I have subsequently argued for an ethical code for the EU and European states (2012). This Ethical concern has been the main framework of a Special Issue edited by American Behavioral Scientist, New perspectives on the Ethics of International Migration that I edited with Antoine Pécoud (2012). In this paper I build on this work and develop a methodological and viable proposal for an ethical code on migration.