The communitarian community membership and the support for an entry visa

Abstract

Why, as a Nigerian, do I need a visa to travel to South Africa? Why should a South African require a visa to travel to Nigeria? The answers seem obvious. I am not a South African but a Nigerian and a South African is not a Nigerian too. The answers receive a theoretical backing in a radical communitarian philosophy and the notion of community membership. Radical communitarianism, as a theory, favours socio-historical contextualism and endorses the social embeddedness of the individual. The individual is not only a member of his or her community at birth, the community is the primary commodity shared among members. The point is well demonstrated in the work of communitarians such as Michael Sandel, Michael Walzer, Charles Taylor, Amitai Etzioni, Kwame Gyekye, and Robert Bellah. On this account, both Nigeria and South Africa as nations are considered to be communities too. The article argues that the possible support for entry visas derivable from a radical communitarian philosophy and the notion of community membership is not philosophically convincing. The article suggests a revised communitarian notion of membership consistent with contemporary shifts in communitarian philosophy especially in its methodology. Such a revised notion of community membership exposes the weakness of the possible communitarian argument for entry visas.