Deck 20: The Ethics of Immigration

Question 1

Undocumented immigrants provide an enormous benefit to the Social Security system because they pay into the system but are unable to receive anything in return.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

In 1901 Australia passed the Immigration Restriction Act, which aimed to limit nonwhite immigration to Australia, particularly Asian immigration, and thereby preserve the predominance of the British within Australia. Suppose that a large majority of Australians would have been made happier by passage of this law. Would a utilitarian advocate for such a law in these circumstances?

A) No, because it is unjust for a country to accept only white Europeans.
B) No, because the safety and welfare of refugees is more important than the happiness of Australians.
C) Yes, because the consequences of passing this law would be better overall than if it were not passed.
D) Yes, because refugees would lack moral status under utilitarianism.

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In just a few years, Hispanics will be the majority in the United States, and whites will be a minority.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Many people, including many politicians, overestimate the number of unauthorized immigrants living in the United States. In 2015, the number was about

A) 800,000.
B) 4 million.
C) 11 million.
D) 43 million.

Question 5

Americans tend to overestimate immigrants' share of the population. Many believe that it is more than twice as large as it actually is, which is around

A) 0.5 percent.
B) 3.4 percent.
C) 14 percent.
D) 28 percent.

Question 6

In 1939 the United States turned away a ship carrying 900 German Jews persecuted by the Nazi regime, eventually resulting in the deaths of more than 250 of the refugees. A cosmopolitan egalitarian would have said this decision was morally acceptable, because refugees lack the same rights as citizens.

Question 7

Libertarians argue for cosmopolitanism by pointing out that restricted immigration interferes with a citizen's right to allow foreigners to enter his or her property and infringes on a foreigner's right to freedom of movement.

Question 8

There is universal agreement on all sides of the immigration debate that that the need to preserve a nation's distinctive culture is a good reason to favor closed borders.

Question 9

Which of the following would be a utilitarian reason for limiting immigration?

A) Immigration is not natural.
B) Immigration will disrupt the economy.
C) Immigration violates the rights of natural-born citizens.
D) Immigration treats natural-born citizens as mere means, rather than as ends.

Question 10

Immigrants are taking jobs away from American citizens.

Question 11

Consider the following premises of a moral argument about immigration:
1) If high levels of immigration by low-skilled workers make it unlikely that we will fulfill our moral obligations to the poorest Americans, then we should reduce or stop such immigration.
2) Currently high levels of immigration by low-skilled workers do make it unlikely that we will fulfill our moral obligations to the poorest Americans.
Which of the following conclusions would make this argument valid?

A) Therefore, we should encourage immigration, especially from countries with low-skilled workers.
B) Therefore, we should reduce or stop high levels of immigration by low-skilled workers.
C) Therefore, we should not reduce or stop high levels of immigration by low-skilled workers.
D) Therefore, we should try to improve the education systems of countries with low-skilled workers.

Question 12

Evidence collected over decades shows that immigrants actually show less propensity toward crime than native-born citizens and that immigration can even be considered a factor in the decrease of violent crime in the United States.

Question 13

During the Civil War (1862) General Ulysses S. Grant issued an expulsion order for all Jews within the parts of the territory he controlled.

Question 14

Some argue that a wealthy nation that offers substantial welfare benefits to its citizens (such as Sweden and other Scandinavian countries) cannot afford to have open borders, because doing so would

A) result in more civil unrest.
B) cause the welfare system to collapse.
C) undermine the purpose of immigration.
D) deplete the military's resources.

Question 15

In 1965, the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act. While immigration policy had previously been based on a quota system, the new policy favored

A) skilled immigrants and those who, by immigrating, could help reunite families.
B) unskilled immigrants who would benefit from American education.
C) immigrants from Western Europe.
D) immigrants from Latin America.

Question 16

Those who appeal to utilitarian considerations argue that restricting immigration has adverse consequences, especially economically, because closed borders restrict trade, waste talents, and impede prosperity.

Question 17

In 1790, a U.S. law was passed stating the requirements for becoming a naturalized citizen. In order to be eligible for naturalization, each applicant had to be

A) a person born at some point after the founding of the nation or the parent of such a person.
B) a descendant of someone who had come over on the Mayflower or a person related to an indigenous person.
C) a resident of the United States for two years, a person of good moral character, and a free white person.
D) a Christian person who fought in the Revolutionary War and had at least two hundred acres of land.

Question 18

Most people deported from the United States have committed a crime, which is the reason they are deported.

Question 19

Stephen Macedo sums up his perspective on immigration in this way: "If high levels of immigration have detrimental impact on our least well-off citizens, that is a reason to limit immigration, even if those who seek admission seem to be poorer than our own poor whose condition is worsened by their entry." His view is best characterized as

A) authoritarian.
B) egalitarian.
C) cosmopolitan.
D) anticosmopolitan.

Question 20

Christopher Heath Wellman argues that nations have a right to close their borders, a right derived from the more fundamental right to ________.

A) freedom of association
B) freedom of religion
C) self-defense
D) make laws

Question 21

Cosmopolitan ________ contend that everyone, including both compatriots and noncitizens, is entitled to equal moral rights and consideration and that allowing open borders is the key to eliminating the vast economic inequalities in the world.

Question 22

Someone who believes that wealthy nations able to ease the suffering of the world's poor and oppressed have a moral obligation to do so, but that such nations also have moral obligations to their own citizens that may be weightier than those concerning foreigners, is referred to as a(n) ________.

Question 23

The federal government refers to someone who has fled from his or her home country and cannot return because he or she has a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group as a(n) ________.

Question 24

The term ________ is defined by the U.S. government as the formal removal of a foreign national from the United States for violating an immigration law.

Question 25

________ is the view that wealthy nations able to ease the suffering of the world's poor and oppressed have a moral obligation to do so, and that this obligation is as strong concerning a nation's own citizens as it is concerning foreigners.