Immigrant Neighbors, Workers, and Caregivers in Our Midst: What We Owe Each Other

Michael Sullivan reviews David Miller’s new book—Strangers in Our Midst—which, as described by Sullivan, “seeks to balance citizen apprehensions about regulating, integrating, and potentially naturalizing millions of newcomers, while meeting international obligations and safeguarding the basic human rights of all migrants. Miller begins and concludes his account of immigration regulation, integration, and naturalization from what he describes as both a ‘communitarian’ and ‘social democratic’ perspective. As a communitarian, he disavows the idea that ‘a political philosopher could lay down’ a single immigration policy ‘as the just or correct policy for all the liberal democracies (let alone all societies) to pursue.’ He is adamant about the value of national identity grounded in the shared historical experiences of people with memories and obligations to one another that extend into the past, are remembered today, and extend into the future. As such, he challenges the notion that there is a universal prescription for how diverse nations should think about or regulate immigration and naturalization.