Is it ever justified to place conditions on emigration? An unconstrained right to emigration may be grounded in a full and exclusive right to personal autonomy. By contrast, this paper argues that both standards of basic justice and international human rights may serve as justified constraints on the right to emigration in the context of health worker brain drain from poor countries. The key is to understand what may count as justified grounds and what constitute the stakes and relevant limits of a qualified right to emigration. This paper argues that justified constraints depend on the internal and external moral standing of the state: a) internal: promoting basic justice while leaving ample room for members to form and pursue their conception of the good; b) external: compliance with international human rights standards, such as progressively realizing the right to health.
