In The Rights of Others Seyla Benhabib examines the borders of the political community by focusing on membership in a particular political membership: that is, the principles and practices for the incorporation of foreigners, outsiders, immigrants and newcomers, refugees and asylees, to existing political bodies. Traditionally, political borders have defined some as members and others as foreigners. But today, when the sovereignty of states cracks and national citizenship tends to break down, definitions of political belonging become less clear. Especially when there are direct tensions and contradictions between human rights declarations and the defence by States of their sovereign right to control both their borders and the quality and quantity of those admitted.
Echoing Emmanuel Kant and Hannah Arendt, the author launches a powerful appeal for moral universalism and cosmopolitan federalism, declaring he favors establishing borders not open but porous that recognize not only the admission rights of refugees and asylum seekers - that is, the right of every human being to be a legal person , regardless of their status as political membership, but also the regulatory rights of democracies.
The rights of others is an important contribution to contemporary political theory that will interest not only students and specialists in politics, philosophy and international relations, but also any reader interested in understanding the profound problems behind today's migration movements.