Refugees, displacement and territorial stability

What is special about refugees? In this paper, I argue that the two main accounts of who should count as a refugee have major shortcomings. The first, based on protection from persecution, is too narrow, as it excludes many people who have to flee their homes for other reasons than persecution. The...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Sandelind, Clara (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group [2020]
In: Journal of global ethics
Year: 2020, Volume: 16, Issue: 2, Pages: 162-181
Further subjects:B Territory
B Asylum
B Human Rights
B Citizenship
B Refugees
Online Access: Volltext (Resolving-System)
Description
Summary:What is special about refugees? In this paper, I argue that the two main accounts of who should count as a refugee have major shortcomings. The first, based on protection from persecution, is too narrow, as it excludes many people who have to flee their homes for other reasons than persecution. The second, based on the protection of human rights, overcomes this problem, but at the expense of a narrow view of refugee protection, which only amounts to the protection of fundamental human rights. By developing a territorial account of refugeehood, which builds on the human rights account, I propose that what is special about refugees is the harm of displacement. The conceptual implication is a grounding of states’ duties towards refugees in the legitimacy of their territorial rights. The practical implication is a strong critique of temporary forms of protection. To redress the harm of displacement, a territorial account holds, refugee protection must offer territorial stability, ultimately through a pathway to citizenship. I thus show how it is possible to marry the human rights account of refugees with a notion of refugee protection as membership in a new state.
ISSN:1744-9634
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of global ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/17449626.2020.1784250