Introduction to special issue: Real-world justice and international migration
| Author | Terry Macdonald,Adrian Little |
| Date | 01 October 2015 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1474885115584832 |
| Published date | 01 October 2015 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Political Theory
2015, Vol. 14(4) 381–390
!The Author(s) 2015
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DOI: 10.1177/1474885115584832
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Article
Introduction to special issue:
Real-world justice and
international migration
Adrian Little and Terry Macdonald
University of Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
In this article, we introduce the project developed in this special issue: a search for
principles of ‘real-world’ justice in international migration that can offer practical guid-
ance on real political problems of migration governance. We begin by highlighting two
sources of divergence between the principal topics of theoretical controversy within
literatures on migration justice and the animating sources of political controversy within
real national and international publics. These arise first in the framing of the problems
on which normative theory is purported to offer guidance, and second in the character
of the normative reasons that are invoked as grounds for settling the controversies. In
response to these divergences, we propose that the development of action-guiding
normative theories of international migration can be supported with resources from
broadly ‘realist’ approaches to political theory. We outline three key dimensions in
which the ‘real-world’ theoretical approaches developed in this collection of papers
connect up with important themes in the wider theoretical literature on political ‘real-
ism’: first, a problem-centred methodological strategy; second, a focus on the value of
political legitimacy; and third, a commitment to reconciling systematic engagement with
real political problems and circumstances with a critical normative orientation towards
political problems.
Keywords
Migration, immigration, legitimacy, border control, non-ideal theory, realism, justice
Real-world problems in international migration
The movement and displacement of people across state boundaries – in particular,
of people seeking escape from severe forms of political, economic, or environmen-
tal threat or hardship – now occurs on a scale unprecedented in previous eras of
international politics. Migrants and asylum seekers confront states and
Corresponding author:
Adrian Little, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Email: little@unimelb.edu.au
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