ABSTRACT
Contemporary mass economic migrations have led to debates and controversies between, generally speaking, the defenders of the individual’s human rights of free movement and settlement versus the defenders of the nation-state’s rights and obligations to guard their national boundaries against masses of potential immigrants. On the one hand, from a liberal point of view, migration has been explained in respect of the exercise of human rights or as a factor working against poverty and political oppression (Dowty 1987; Richmond 1994; Zolberg 1989). On the other hand, from the point of view of conservative (often right-wing) political theorists, it has been seen as a threat to social cohesion, and even to the sovereignty of nation-states ‘swarmed over’ by bearers of different cultures (Stolcke 1995). And both sides believe that they have good reasons for defending their stand.
