Catholic social thought, regional economic integration, and immigration policy: Reconstructing Catholic social thinking regarding the right to freedom of movement

This thesis discusses how modern Catholic social thought (CST) might incorporate the reality of regional economic integration, exemplified by accords like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), into its thinking regarding immigration policy. CST's writing on the ethics of immigration policies tries to be responsive to transnational interdependence. CST acknowledges the relationship between interdependence and increased transnational migration, but does not provide comprehensive guidance as to how the relationship between the right to emigrate and obligations to receive immigrants ought to be politically structured. This thesis makes a proposal that is meant to help CST expand the guidance it can give regarding the structuring of transnational rights to migrate and obligations to receive migrants. In dialogue with liberal thinking, this thesis suggests that CST can understand regional integration agreements as giving rise to special reciprocal rights to migrate and obligations to receive migrants.; The works of several thinkers who have written on this topic are queried. First, the writings of CST are analyzed. The right to migrate in CST is understood as a geographic right of public access to goods. Second, the writing of Michael Walzer on membership is examined in light of his more recent work and statements. Walzer provides hints as to how non-citizens can end up being de facto incorporated into another country's political community. Subsequently, arguments for a robust global right to freedom of movement, put forth by Joseph Carens, are evaluated. Although these arguments are judged unsuccessful, Carens's focus on basic social institutions offers clues as to how CST might think about interdependence. These clues, with the help of Thomas W. Pogge's institutional conception of human rights, in which rights are understood as claims on institutional orders, are incorporated into CST's thinking. This incorporation gives CST a framework for understanding how and when regional integration agreements can lead to special rights to migrate across borders and corresponding obligations to receive migrants. The implications of this framework for state policy are briefly illustrated by examining transnational worker provisions under NAFTA and an immigration reform bill recently sponsored in the U.S. Senate.