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The ethics of immigration

What are the ethical issues that should underpin our approach to migration and immigration. This article seeks to ask the questions, and point to the answers rather than address the practical implications and policies that could result from such an a

The real problem ...

The real problem is the classic Catch-22 that the UK has deliberately created for anyone needing to claim asylum.

To claim asylum, you have to be physically present within the UK to claim asylum. One cannot apply for asylum from abroad.
To legally g

What is asylum all about?

Claiming asylum is about applying for "refugee" protection and assistance. The UK policy is defined here:

Claim asylum in the UK

https://www.gov.uk/claim-asylum

This document above says:

You must apply for asylum if you want to stay in the UK as a

What is the small boats crisis?

Recent "Irregular migration" statistics from March 2022 up to March 2023

Irregular Migration is the term used by the Home Office to designate those entering the country without permission to do so. The document linked below outlines the bare statis

Recent media coverage

The Radio 4 programme "More or Less" recently had a segment covering the Net Migration figures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001mc9g (From: 10:24 to 15:31)

The BBC One programme "On Sunday with Laura Kuensberg" recently had a large segment about

What is migration all about?

People want to come and live in the UK - but many also want to leave! The key issue is net migration, not merely immigration as such.

Immigration concerns government policy regarding who to allow into the UK (see discussion below). The word "immi

Immigration

Immigration is a big and emotive subject. This article is broken up into a number of handy chunks to help make it more readable and easier to navigate. Extensive use has been made of official UK government statistics and statements issued by the U

What could be done?

Here are some broad-brush ideas which might have a positive, humanitarian impact on the situation.

Relieve the "small boats" crisis by creating legal means to apply for asylum from outside the UK. Furthermore, allow people to come to the UK on a

States, Countries and Nations

In many discussions, we appear to treat the terms 'state', 'country' and 'nation' as being interchangeable. But on reading around the subject, there seems to be a large degree of agreement about the precise meanings. The terms 'state' and 'country'

Social Theory

Our conversations regularly circle around aspects of social theory - how society operates, and how it could or should operate better.

A Fair Society

Much of the campaigning undertaken by equalities groups is, either explicitly or implicitly, directed at achieving a fair society - or, at least, a fair society for the members of our equalities group. The initial goals tend to be straightforward, c

Real Life

There has been a lot of talk recently about various aspects of artificial life - artificial intelligence, sentient machines, computers gaining self-awareness, and so on. It seems self-evident that we can easily distinguish between living and non-liv

The Ghost in the Machine

A materialist solution to Cartesian Dualism does not work because the body, the living organism, is not only material; the other side of the coin is that the problem of Cartesian Dualism itself, how a non-material mind interacts with a material body,

Farming

This topic will cover not only farming, but all food production and use of the land to deliberately grow things or raise animals.

Gods, Ancient and Modern

People constantly talk about God, whether they believe in God or not, and they clearly have something in mind when they do so. But, when you move beyond the beliefs of a specific group, there is almost no agreement about what a 'God' (or 'god') is.

AI - Alison Pickard Interview

AI Rosalind Pickard Interview 20200317.pdf

Talking About Religion

All the usual principles of good practice on this site apply to discussion of religion too. Please be clear about the purpose of any contribution, and please aim to keep any response to a contribution relevant to what was posted.

God and Gods

There is a common assumption in many Western countries that if you are religious, then you 'believe in God', and that your choice of religion is all about believing in the 'right' God. However, while you will find a God or multiple gods in many reli

War

This is an attempt to identify the key aspects of war. Almost everyone agrees that war is bad, something to be avoided if possible, but we are not very clear what the ‘if possible’ might consist of: whoever you talk to, the responsibility for avoidi

Reason Alone

Neither science nor reason can guide anything, from individual choice a national strategy. Science can tell us the fastest way to get from A to B, but it cannot tell us whether we should go there. It can tell us the likely consequences of an action,

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