Page - 416 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

VULNERABLE416 government to fill the gaps in EI during the pandemic. Anyone without a valid Social Insurance Number, including undocumented migrants and foreign workers with expired permits, is ineligible for the new benefit.35 Apparently, these migrants lack the right documen- tation to make them part of us and to deserve our aid. Problems With a Us-Versus-Them Approach People who embrace a cosmopolitan worldview often find it mor- ally problematic to distinguish individuals based on citizenship and immigration statuses.36 Many of them have pointed to international law’s guarantee of universal human rights to demand the provision of health and social care by governments to everyone within their respec- tive jurisdiction.37 Others, by contrast, have defended the right of national communities to define who they are and whom they allow to join them.38 From such a perspective, some degree of us-versus-them in public policy making is said to help bind a community together and facilitate resource sharing among community members.39 It is not my intention to resolve this long-standing debate here. Instead, I argue that even without resorting to cosmopolitan ethics, the line drawing between citizens and migrants embedded in Canada’s pan- demic responses falls short, as it contravenes the dictates of equality and reciprocity, as well as public health objectives. Citizenship as a legal regime recognizes and protects the inter- ests of individuals who belong to a specific community on such bases as their personal ties and social participation.40 As made plain by the pandemic, many migrants who are currently denied health care and income supports in fact closely resemble their citizen counterparts in terms of their belonging to the Canadian society. Far from strangers to us, they are our coworkers, caregivers, families, neighbours, and march/1420/The-Great-Canadian-Rip-Off-An-Economic-Case-for-Restoring- Full-EI-Special-Benefits-Access-to-SAWP-Workers.pdf>. 35. Meyer, supra note 33. 36. Thomas W Pogge, “Cosmopolitanism and Sovereignty” (1992) 103:1 Ethics 48 at 48–49. 37. See e.g. Cécile Rousseau et al, “Health Care Access for Refugees and Immigrants With Precarious Status” (2008) 99:4 Can J Public Health 290. 38. See e.g. Michael Walzer, Spheres  of  Justice:  A  Defense  of  Pluralism  and  Equality, (New York: Basic Books, 1983). 39. David Miller, “In What Sense Must Socialism Be Communitarian?” (1989) 6:2 Social Philosophy & Policy 51. 40. Joseph Carens, The  Ethics  of  Immigration, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).