Lotteries and immigration

Al Hashmi, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5499-9206 (2022) Lotteries and immigration. Journal of Applied Philosophy, 39 (2). pp. 253-265. ISSN 0264-3758 doi: 10.1111/japp.12551

Abstract/Summary

States sometimes select immigrants by lottery. In this article, I argue that lottery-based programs that select immigrants are not ideal for neither an unbiased decisionmaking process, fairness, nor diversity. I consider each argument in turn. First, I examine the argument that lotteries should be implemented because they ‘sanitise’ the immigration selection procedure of bad reasons and biases. Second, I consider the fairness-based justification of lotteries, which claims that lotteries are a fair way of selecting would-be immigrants because it gives them all an equal chance to enter. Third, I consider the argument that an immigration lottery should be adopted as a way of increasing diversity in the immigrant population. I show that none of these arguments succeeds in its own terms. However, I argue that lotteries that are part of a wider immigration regime can sometimes be justified as a second-best policy device. I illustrate my argument by focusing on the case of the Green Card Lottery.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127951
Identification Number/DOI	10.1111/japp.12551
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Politics and International Relations
Publisher	Wiley-Blackwell
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