The Ethics and Politics of Asylum
Liberal Democracy and the Response to Refugees

An examination of the ethical and political issues raised by the responses of Western states to refugees.

Matthew J. Gibney (Author)

9780521009379, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 8 July 2004

300 pages
22.9 x 15.4 x 2 cm, 0.49 kg

'Recent international refugee law scholarship has seen an increasing focus on a 'Convention Plus' approach to refugee-protection: that is, on international burden sharing arrangements, and the temporary protection of refugees in situ. Strong pragmatic arguments have been advanced for this shift in focus; whereas, to date, no sustained normative theoretical justification has been advanced in the same direction. In The Ethics and Politics of Asylum, Matthew Gibney makes an important contribution to filing that gap, and thus to grounding a Convention Plus approach in ethical as well as pragmatic-political imperatives.' International Journal of Refugee Law

Asylum has become a highly charged political issue across developed countries, raising a host of difficult ethical and political questions. What responsibilities do the world's richest countries have to refugees arriving at their borders? Are states justified in implementing measures to prevent the arrival of economic migrants if they also block entry for refugees? Is it legitimate to curtail the rights of asylum seekers to maximize the number of refugees receiving protection overall? This book draws upon political and ethical theory and an examination of the experiences of the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia to consider how to respond to the challenges of asylum. In addition to explaining why asylum has emerged as such a key political issue in recent years, it provides a compelling account of how states could move towards implementing morally defensible responses to refugees.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Partiality: community, citizenship and the defence of closure
2. Impartiality: freedom, equality and open borders
3. The Federal Republic of Germany: the rise and fall of a right to asylum
4. The United Kingdom: the value of asylum
5. The United States: the making and breaking of a refugee consensus
6. Australia: restricting asylum, resettling refugees
7. From ideal to non-ideal theory: reckoning with the state, politics and consequences
8. Liberal democratic states and ethically defensible asylum practices
List of references
Index.

Subject Areas: International humanitarian law [LBBS], Political science & theory [JPA], Social & political philosophy [HPS]