Non-ideal Approaches in Migration Ethics: Movement, Membership, and Asylum - IVR Special Workshop

Special Workshop “Non-ideal Approaches in Migration Ethics: Movement, Membership, and Asylum in the Contemporary World”

IVR World Congress 2026 Istanbul

June 28 – July 3, 2026

https://ivr2026istanbul.org/

Convenors: Konstantinos Farmakidis-Markou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Anna Milioni (Center for Research in Ethics, Montreal), Jan Turlej (Jagiellonian University)

Workshop Description

Migration raises difficult questions against the background of an imperfect global order. Cross-border movement – whether voluntary, driven by constraining circumstances, or the absence of meaningful life opportunities, and forced – poses enduring ethical problems of admission and reception, exclusion, protection, responsibility, and belonging. At the same time, recent and emerging developments – including climate-induced displacement, digitalized border control, the securitization of migration, shifting labour markets, the externalization of responsibility, and evolving legal regimes of asylum and citizenship – are putting established legal and moral-political frameworks under increasing strain. Non-ideal theory, first systematized for global society by John Rawls in The Law of Peoples, has since served as a framework for justifying and specifying international duties and as a widely adopted account of the responsibilities that peoples bear toward fellow human beings. At the same time, it has been strongly, yet fruitfully, criticized by proponents of more morality-centred approaches to global justice, especially in the context of migration. This workshop invites contributions that engage with the ethics of migration across its full spectrum, approached especially through a non-ideal normative-theoretical perspective, including: immigration and emigration, refugee protection, statelessness, and citizenship. The workshop aims to provide a forum for philosophical reflection on how moral obligations toward migrants are shaped, justified, constrained, and sometimes transformed under contemporary conditions. Rather than focusing on a single doctrinal or policy issue, the workshop aims to explore the normative principles underlying migration governance, as well as the tensions between state sovereignty, individual rights, collective self-determination and global justice.

Themes and Questions

We welcome theoretical, normative, critical, and empirically informed contributions on, among others, the following topics:

• The ethics of admission and exclusion: What moral principles should guide immigration policies? Are borders morally permissible, or is the abolition of borders morally permissible?
• Emigration and exit rights: Do individuals have a moral right to leave their state? Under what conditions, if any, can restrictions on emigration be morally justified?
• Refugees, asylum, and forced displacement: What obligations do states and international institutions owe to refugees and displaced persons?
• Climate migration and future displacement: How should ethical frameworks be revised to address migration and displacement driven by environmental degradation and climate change?
• Citizenship and membership: Is citizenship best understood as a matter of state discretion, or as something to which individuals can have moral (and possibly legal) claims? When, if ever, do long-term residence, contribution, or vulnerability give rise to obligations of inclusion?
• Statelessness and legal invisibility: How should law and ethics respond to individuals who fall outside established regimes of protection?
• Global justice and responsibility-sharing: How should the burdens and benefits of migration be distributed fairly at the global level?  

The workshop is open call. Contributions may draw from:

• philosophy (moral, political, legal philosophy),
• legal theory and jurisprudence,
• political theory,
• and a normative analysis informed by empirical research.

The workshop aims to:

• foster dialogue among different approaches to migration ethics,
• clarify the normative assumptions underlying contemporary migration regimes,
• and contribute to broader debates on responsibility, membership, and justice.

The workshop may provide the foundation for future collaboration, a themed publication, or a subsequent research network.