Abstract
This paper explores the implications of empirical theories of migration for
normative accounts of migration and distributive justice. It examines
neo-classical economics, world-systems theory, dual labor market theory, and
feminist approaches to migration and contends that neo-classical economic
theory in isolation provides an inadequate understanding of migration. Other
theories provide a fuller account of how national and global economic,
political, and social institutions cause and shape migration flows by
actively affecting people's opportunity sets in source countries and by
admitting people according to social categories such as class and gender.
These empirical theories reveal the causal impact of institutions regulating
migration and clarify moral obligations frequently overlooked by normative
theorists.