%0 Journal Article
%A Oshal, Tavren Oshal
%D 2025
%J Journal of Controversial Ideas

%@ 2694-5991

%V 5
%N 3
%P 6

%T Refugees’ IQs are Normatively Consequential
%M doi:10.63466/jci05030006
%U https://journalofcontroversialideas.org/article/5/3/301
%X Responding to an article by Rindermann et al. (2024), which reports that refugees in Germany, on average, have significantly lower intelligence than the German host population, Bradley Hillier-Smith has argued that such cognitive disparities – if they exist – are irrelevant to states’ moral duties toward refugees. This article challenges his position. It further contends that even if we adopt a cosmopolitan perspective that denies states the right to prioritize the interests of their own populations, it is not clear that states in the Global North are morally required – or even permitted – to admit large numbers of relatively low-IQ refugees from the Global South. This, I show, is especially true given that assistance could instead take the form of supporting their relocation to a safe country within the region.