Immigration policies often favor high-skilled over low-skilled migrants. Wealthy Western states like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia express their desire to attract the “best and the brightest.” In contrast, low-skilled workers often are portrayed as dangerous and undesirable, a drain on social welfare, and an economic threat to citizens. Désirée Lim’s new book with Oxford University Press, Immigration and Social Equality: The Ethics of Skill-Selective Immigration Policy, challenges the status quo. The philosophical framework developed in the book casts skill-selective immigration policies in a new light—as forms of wrongful discrimination.  

An interdisciplinary panel will discuss this important new book and the issues it raises, with particular attention to its insights for immigration policy today. The event is cosponsored by the Penn State University Libraries, Rock Ethics Institute, and Department of Philosophy. 

Panelists: 

• Author: Désirée Lim, Catherine Shultz Rein Early Career Professor and Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Penn State 
• Critic: Tobias Brinkmann, Malvin and Lea Bank Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and History at Penn State 
• Critic: Patti Lenard, Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa 
• Critic: Eduardo Mendieta, Professor of Philosophy and Latina/o Studies at Penn State 
• Moderator: Ben Jones, Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Penn State