Ryan Pevnick

Ryan's dissertation, ‘Membership & Residence: The Ethics of Immigration Policy,’ explores the ethics of immigration policy. Contemporary discussions of immigration often approach the debate in simple, dichotomous terms. Communitarians and liberal nationalists favoring constraints on immigration are pitted against libertarians and cosmopolitans committed to open borders. I argue, however, that this standard picture of the debate conflates two issues that ought to be kept apart: questions about claims of membership and questions about claims of residence. Although migrants often have good reason to insist on entry into territory, I argue that their claims on citizenship (and the associated benefits and duties) are often weaker. A failure to attend to this distinction has led theorists to obfuscate significant issues and to misunderstand the significance of various lines of argument.

Three chapters of the dissertation have been accepted for publication (at Political Studies, The Journal of Political Philosophy, and Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy). Additionally, Ryan has authored essays on political obligation (published in The Journal of Political Philosophy) and John Locke's arguments for religious tolerance.

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