ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses largely on 'unwanted' noncitizens in situ. Noncitizens in general and 'unwanted' noncitizens in particular, are made vulnerable to that State, a vulnerability that is reinforced rather than neutralised by its denial. The individuals affected were already suffering racial discrimination, impeding their ability to exercise their formal citizenship fully. The removal of formal citizenship formalised and deepened their noncitizen-vulnerability in the context of the State system. An additional dimension of the construction of some noncitizens as 'unwanted', expelled by a State built upon liberal democratic principles is the implication that this has for the free-association of citizens, and their decisions about how to live their lives. The chapter considers in particular the situation for irregular migrants and stateless persons within a State built on liberal democratic principles. In a liberal theory of justice there is no underlying moral reason to render the activity in which such persons engage illegal or wrongful in itself.
