Reconceiving International Refugee Law

Book excerpt: Violence and other human rights abuses continue to force desperate people to migrate in search of protection. Yet because the political and economic reasons that induced an historical openness to the arrival of refugees have largely withered away, there is no longer a guarantee that any state will be prepared to receive these involuntary migrants. Governments of both North and South are withdrawing from the international legal duty to provide potentially indefinite protection to any and all refugees who arrive at their borders. The challenge is to reconceive refugee protection in a way that is reconcilable with the legitimate concerns of modern states, yet which does not sacrifice the critical right of at-risk people to seek asylum. The essays in Reconceiving International Refugee Law offer a response to the concerns of many states that refugee protection has become no more than a `back door' route to permanent immigration, and that its costs are not fairly apportioned among states. Drawing on the research of leading migration scholars from around the world, and vetted through dialogue with senior officials and non-governmental experts, this volume explores the potential for a shift to a robust and empowering system of temporary asylum, supported by a pragmatic system of guarantees to share both the costs and human responsibilities of refugee protection.