Michael Huemer’s essay Is there a right to immigrate? contains another scenario which shows that wanting to limit cultural change doesn’t give us the right to harm potential migrants by using force to prevent them from migrating. This second scenario is another scenario starring Marvin and Sam.
[I]magine that Sam has coercively prevented Marvin from reaching the localmarket place, where he would have bought food needed to sustain his life. His earlier justifications for his behavior having fallen flat, Sam mentions that he had yet another reason. Marvin practices very different traditions from most of the other people in the marketplace. For instance, he wears unusual clothing, belongs to a minority religion, speaks a different language from most others (though he is able to get along well enough to purchase food), and admires very different kinds of art. Sam became concerned that, if Marvin went to the marketplace and interacted with the people gathered there, he might influence the thinking and behavior of others in the marketplace. He might convert others to his religion, for example, or induce more people to speak his language. Because Sam did not want these things to happen, he decided to forcibly prevent Marvin from reaching the marketplace.
Sam had a real interest in preventing the sort of changes that Marvin might have induced. The question is whether this interest is of such a kind that it justifies the use of harmful coercion against innocent others to protect that interest. Intuitively, the answer is no. Sam’s desire to be surrounded by people who think and behave in ways similar to himself does not overrule Marvin’s right to be free from harmful coercion.
Questions
- Just because Sam wants to be surrounded by people who think and behave like him, does that mean he has the right to use force to prevent Marvin from reaching the market (and seriously harming Marvin in the process)?
- Just because we might want to be surrounded by people who think and behave like us, does that mean we have the right to use force to prevent potential migrants from entering the country (and seriously harming them in the process)?