CFP: The Ethics of Migration and Demographic Change

Population aging and the shrinking workforce are increasingly perceived as critical demographic challenges threatening the viability of the welfare state and economic prosperity. Migration has gained traction in policy circles as a way to respond to these challenges. Yet this approach raises ethical concerns. For example, recent political events show how migration can be used by anti-democratic forces to mobilize their political agenda. In addition, migration from developing countries can lead to brain drain and erode these countries’ capacity to provide basic goods for their population. Moreover, the colonial history underlying current migration trends adds a further layer of complexity to this picture. If unwarily designed, these policies run the risk of becoming yet another instance of North-to-South global exploitation. 

Such concerns demand ethical reflection to address the highly polarizing intersection of demography, immigration, and population politics in order to offer guidance on how affluent liberal states may address demographic challenges without violating their fundamental normative commitments. Yet migration ethics scholarship is, for the most part, disconnected from the empirical literature on changing demographic trends, and the interests of sending countries remain undertheorized. As such, this workshop aims to stimulate conceptual innovations on the ethical issues surrounding liberal states’ use of immigration policy to tackle demographic challenges.

We invite submissions from scholars in political and moral philosophy, ethics, political theory, legal theory, and social theory. Interdisciplinary contributions that explore normative questions are also encouraged. We are especially interested in work addressing the intersection of demography, immigration, and population politics, including but not limited to questions such as:

• Which normative frameworks best capture the ethical challenges posed by demographic decline in affluent liberal states?

• Is migration ethics an appropriate framework for addressing demographic change?

• Should migration policies be designed to regulate population growth, and what implications would this have for procreative freedoms?

• Is framing migration as a ‘response’ to demographic decline ethically problematic, particularly in light of the agency of migrants and the interests of sending countries?

• How should liberal states account, if at all, for anti-immigrant backlash when designing migration policies that address demographic challenges? Can a migration policy that lacks democratic support be legitimate?

• Which immigration policies, if any, are morally acceptable responses to declining birth rates?

• How should receiving states account for the interests of sending states when addressing demographic decline through migration policies?

• Which aspects of demographic decline are relevant to the ethics of migration? How should intergenerational justice, for example, shape decision-making in this domain?

• Should colonial-era migration patterns inform how we think about migration and demographic challenges, and if so, in what way?

• How can empirical research inform the debate on justifiable migration policies to tackle demographic decline?

This list is non-exhaustive. Submissions on related topics are welcome.

We have two to three available slots for external speakers. Participation costs will be partially covered (i.e., accommodation will be provided but we expect participants to cover their transportation costs). If you are interested in joining the workshop, please submit an anonymized abstract of no more than 500 words, along with an email including your name, title, and affiliation to [email protected]. The format of this workshop is pre-read. Abstracts should be suitable for development into a paper (5 000 – 8 000 words). Participants will be asked to give a brief (5-10 min) presentation of their paper as part of the 1-hour discussion session of their work. The deadline for submission is April 18, 2025. Notification of acceptance will be provided by May 9.

Key dates:

Abstracts submission deadline: April 18, 2025

Notification sent to participants: May 9, 2025

Submission of papers: September 5, 2025

Workshop: September 18, 2025

If you have any questions regarding the workshop, please contact Giovanni Martino at [email protected] 

The workshop organizing committee consists of:

Mario J. Cunningham Matamoros, Eszter Kollar, and Giovanni Martino.

The workshop is sponsored by Ethics@KU Leuven Hoover Ethical Initiatives.