The ethics of admission and rejection of immigrants: The case of children born in Hong Kong to mainland parents

In this chapter, the question over the admission or rejection of children born in Hong Kong to Mainland parents will be examined with reference to three major moral considerations: (i) consequential calculation of utilities; (ii) liberal commitment to the elimination of undeserved inequalities; and (iii) communitarian concern over the preservation of integrity of the community. It will be argued that contrary to our intuition, utilitarian calculation would not necessarily in favor of rejection of outsiders as long as our calculation is impartial and the utilities of all parties concerned are taken into consideration. And the communitarian argument against admission of Mainlanders would not be as compelling as it appears if we could adopt a broader understanding of “our” culture and pay attention to the fact that “their” social and political dispositions are getting closer, but not farther, to the mainstream in Hong Kong. However, the liberal commitment, though undoubtedly in favor of admission of Mainland immigrants, would only justify our (limited) obligation to admit but not their unconditional right to enter. Copyright © 2016 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore.