Distributive Justice: Immigration

Distributive Justice: Immigration

Distributive justice is the type of justice that deals with how the goods and services of a particular society are distributed among its members. In America, as in all societies, the distribution of goods and services is not completely equal, but distributive justice describes what the community should be aiming at. Democratic governments, such as the one in place in America, have disproportionate distribution of goods and services because of the way the government regulates and the capitalist society which exists. An issue with determining the way to achieve distributive justice is on which issues the goods and services should be distributed; competence, need, merit, or strict equality. While there are many goods or services that need to be more equitably distributed throughout not only America, but the world, an important service, in terms of America’s capability to control it, is immigration policies. Immigration in terms of justice, deals not with the “national interest” but how immigration could better benefit those in need. The current state of immigration policy is not just in terms of how many people are let into this country, for what reasons, and how they are treated once they are here.

The United States immigration policy and attitude toward immigrants poorly reflects distributive justice in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The first problem with American immigration policy is the number of legal immigrants that are allowed to enter the country each year. This number is far too low and each year hundreds of thousands of people are forced to enter this country illegally either to escape problems in their own country, or to try and achieve a better life in this one. The number of immigrants allowed into this country could be easily increased to allow more people to enter this country legally and thereby prevent people from becoming felons in America by simply trying to find a better life.

Another issue that plagues immigration policy is the priority of who the United States decides to let into the country each year. The order of which the United States allows in immigrants, on a first come first serve basis, is those who need to be reunited with families, with relatives already living in America, the ability of an immigrant to contribute a skilled ability to the labor force, and lastly refugees. This distribution of how immigrants are let into the country does not follow the principles of distributive justice. Those who are refugees should be the first to be allowed into the country and should be the category with the greatest number allowed in. While letting in those who provide skilled labor to the workforce is beneficial to the economy, these immigrants are not under serious threat and have a home, unlike refugees, who are escaping persecution. Refugees also face injustice when entering this country as a result of the fact that many of them enter with no social network to fall back on. This brings up another injustice, which is the way immigrants are treated once in this country.

The biggest problem with the treatment of immigrants is the way that illegal immigrants are treated in America. These people have risked everything to come to America to either avoid persecution or to find work, and when illegal immigrants are found by the authorities, they are treated sub-human. An illegal immigrant found by the authorities in the United States is treated as a felon, and worse. They are not given the rights that are given to every other American. The immigrants are locked up and shipped back to their country without any legal representation or other procedure in which they could tell their story. But the government is only part of the injustice that immigrants face. The other issue is the employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants so that they can be exploited for cheap labor. Migrant workers are forced to work for minimal wages and in horrific work environments because the employers know that they have no representation and cannot go to the authorities to complain. The basic rights to work in a safe environment that every American takes for granted is not available to migrant workers. Their sub-human treatment is a perfect example of how in America, capitalism takes precedence over justice and fairness towards others.

Clearly, the issues regarding immigration policy in the United States need to be more equitably distributed so that, as a country of power and wealth, the United States can help those in need. One way to look at immigration reform from a distributive principle is the utilitarianism point of view. This principle looks at how the resources should be most efficiently spread out in society so that society is at its greatest total

“happiness.” Looking at United States immigration policy from this point of view, the way to increase the total happiness would be to let those people in the country who are most in need, refugees, followed by those who are in need of work, and finally