Political Philosophy, Migration, and Methodological Nationalism

Abstract

This chapter explains in detail the cognitive bias of methodological nationalism and shows how it has shaped much work in the political philosophy of migration. Methodological nationalism combines the assumptions of sedentariness, state sovereignty, territorial borders, and membership encouraged by nation-building projects. Political philosophers have for the most part assumed that the site of justice is a closed nation-state in which people enter by birth and exit by death. Though in recent years philosophers have begun to shake off the methodological nationalism of their discipline, it remains a powerful influence that has distorted reflection on the ethics of migration and discouraged reflection on forms of exclusion that take place within, outside, and across state territorial borders.