On Just Movement

Should the movement of people across borders be restricted? Should it be permitted? Should it be promoted? These questions are ubiquitous in daily discourse in our societies, politics and academia, and became subject of an increasing amount of policies regulating movement during the present COVID-19 health crisis. JUSMOVE is a pioneering philosophical project on human movement attempting to answer these fundamental questions, suggesting that a comprehensive study on human movement is highly significant for how we will answer. What is the value of movement for a contemporary person? And according to which conception of just movement should movement be restricted, protected or promoted? JUSMOVE will establish the grounds for a Just Theory of Movement that overcomes the underlined dichotomous view opposing 'closed' to 'open' borders and, in turn, societal trends, which presently contributes to the highly polarized debate on migration and mobility. JUSMOVE's potential impact is fourfold: first, it contributes to the scholarly debate with a novel theory; secondly it proposes an experimental methodology, by combining tools from rigorous ethics and philosophy with potent big data, which lays the grounds for novel cross-disciplinary cooperation; thirdly, it informs the debate of the main stakeholders and decision-makers, such as the European Commission (EC); while also lastly aiming at influencing public debates. JUSMOVE aims to propose a paradigmatic conceptual twist to nearly thirty years of contemporary philosophical debate around migration and states borders, with substantial implications for existing views and for policy making.