Citizenship and Autonomy

Abstract

This chapter argues that an adult’s right to citizenship follows from her right to securely pursue her good in the liberal state where she already has a moral right to live permanently. It defends the claim that when people migrate on a permanent basis to a liberal state in adulthood, they develop the legitimate expectation that they are allowed to pursue core projects and relationships that are territorially located and that extend across time. It also defends the claim that when adults start pursuing core projects and relationships, they acquire an autonomy-based moral claim to pursue them reliably into the future, as well as to engage in political actions that bear on how such projects and relationships can be pursued in the future.