Document Type
Report
Publication Date
1997
Abstract
Discussions of the crisis in international refugee protection are frequently characterized by rhetorical excess, in which some ascribe all problems to malevolent states, while others are equally insistent that fraudulent asylum-seekers are solely to blame. This study was based, in contrast, on a recognition of the real systemic difficulties that jeopardize the viability of refugee protection. Its purpose was to devise a principled yet pragmatic way to reconcile state interests to the continued importance of access to asylum for those who need it.
The essence of our thesis is that the withdrawal of states from their legal responsibility to protect refugees stems primarily from two factors.
First, neither the actual duty to receive refugees nor the real costs associated with their arrival are presently fairly apportioned. There is a keen official awareness that the states in which refugees arrive presently bear sole legal responsibility for what often amounts to indefinite protection. As the admission of refugees is now infrequently perceived to be in the self-interest of asylum states, states will be drawn to resist their arrival.
Second, government increasingly believe that a concerted commitment to refugee protection is tantamount to an abdication of their migration control responsibilities. They see refugee protection as little more than an uncontrolled "back door" route to permanent immigration, in conflict with official efforts to tailor admissions on the basis of economic or other criteria.
Our goal, then, is to re-assert both the essence of refugee protection as a human rights remedy, and the logic of a shared commitment by governments to provide and fund that remedy. We seek to vindicate the right of at-risk people to seek asylum by reconceiving the mechanisms of refugee protection to minimize conflict with the legitimate migration control objectives of states, and by equitably and dependably sharing the responsibilities and burdens of refugee protection.
Recommended Citation
Hathaway, James C., ""Toward the Reformulation of International Refugee Law" Research Report 1992-1997" (1997). Other Publications. 293.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/other/293
Included in
Human Rights Law Commons, Immigration Law Commons, International Humanitarian Law Commons, International Law Commons
Comments
Reproduced with permission.
A project of the Refugee Law Research Unit Centre for Refugee Studies York University Toronto, Canada. Professor James C. Hathaway Research Director.
Funded by The Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation