Immigration, Global Justice and Structural Racism

Nils Holtug argues that policies that support more open borders are a requirement of justice insofar as they contribute to global egalitarianism.However, at the level of regulation, the feasibility of this proposal plays a role and may not make open borders the policy we should adopt in the current political climate.What are the feasibility constraints on a policy of open borders for the sake of increasing global equality?The most pressing feasibility constraint is backlash-the risk that people will grow to resent immigrants and blame immigration for social problems.Holtug argues that although this is an important consideration, it is not as problematic as many people think.This is because, in his view, the bias that often underlies it is malleable.For him, implicit bias and animosity to people in the outgroup are attitudes that can be changed with policy.Though understanding implicit or psychological bias is an important part of theorizing backlash and ways to prevent it, this analysis is incomplete and must be supplemented with an understanding of another equally pernicious form of racism: structural racism.Structural racism is the product of social structures, institutional processes, cultural practices, and political institutions that often work in reinforcing ways to perpetuate racial group inequality.On this view, racial bias is the effect, not the cause, of racial inequalities and injustices.This is why we cannot eliminate the negative attitudes that lead to backlash without also considering structural racism.Reversing prejudice-and consequently backlash-requires changing these structures, not just individual attitudes and biases.If we want racism and bias not to be feasibility constraints on implementing global egalitarianism, we must be prepared to tackle structural racism as well as psychological bias.