Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

512Appendix IIknow the society into which they were born or their position in thatsociety. If one applies this moral test to our problem, then theoutcome for a world society is obvious:Behind the "veil of ignorance," in considering possible restrictions onfreedom, one adopts the perspective of the one who would be mostdisadvantaged by the restrictions, in this case the perspective of the alienwho wants to immigrate. In the original position, then, one would insistthat the right to migrate be included in the system of basic liberties for thesame reasons that one would insist that the right to religious freedom beincluded: it might prove essential to one's plan of life .2:JLegitimate restrictions of immigration rights could at most bejustified in the light of competing considerations, for example, theneed to avoid social conflicts and burdens on a scale that wouldseriously endanger the public order or economic reproduction ofsociety. Criteria of ethnic descent, language, or education-oreven an "attestation of belonging to the cultural community" of theland of immigration, as in the case of Statusdeutschen ("Germans bystatus")-could not justify privileges in the process of immigrationand naturalization.(d) The communitarians, by contrast, point to a fact that the. above-mentioned individualistic approaches overlook. Contrary towhat the model of the legally regulated moral division of laborsuggests, the ocial boundaries of a political community do nothave just a functional meaning. Rather, they regulate one's belongingto a historical community of shared destiny and a political formoflife that is constitutive for the citizens' very identity: "Citizenshipis an answer to the question, 'Who am I?' and 'What should I do?'when posed in the public sphere."24 Membership in a politicalcommunity grounds special duties, behind which stands a patrioticidentification. This kind of loyalty reaches beyond the validity ofinstitutionally prescribed legal duties: "Each member recognizes aloyalty to the community, expressed in a willingness to sacrificepersonal gain to advance its interests."25 The misgivings about anexclusively moral and legal view of the problem draw support fromthe communitarian concept of citizenship, which we have alreadyencountered. Such conceptions are no longer appropriate for theconditions of complex societies, but they do highlight an ethicalcomponent that should not be ignored.