1:15 PM, 5 May 2016 to 2:15 PM, 5 May 2016 at Harold Wilson Building, HWG/22, University of Huddersfield
Refugee quotas: a political, not a moral, solution
Dr Clara Sandelind (University of Huddersfield)
Abstract: Recent work on states’ moral obligations towards refugees have struggled to offer a definition of refugees that is distinct from other people who suffer human rights violations. Because many scholars hold a much wider definition of refugeehood than the UN Convention definition, it is difficult to discern the specific obligations states’ have towards refugees as compared to people generally, whether or not they have crossed an international border, whose human rights are being violated or not sufficiently protected.
This paper argues that what is distinct about refugees is that they make a direct claim to another state’s territory. This claim cannot, in turn, be dismissed without undermining the moral foundation of the state’s territorial rights. The implication is that it is the state that receives this claim that is morally responsible to respond. At the same time, the moral foundations of territorial rights also prevents states from restricting anyone to make such a territorial claim, including any form of non-arrival measures. Beyond the responsibility that states have towards the refugee that is making a direct claim to their territory, they do not have a stronger moral responsibility towards refugees than they have to other individuals whose rights are also being violated. This does not imply that they have no such responsibilities. However, it does imply that refugee quotas do not have a strong moral justification unless people who have not crossed an international border are also included. Because this is unlikely, refugee quotas are at best a political solution to a political problem, rather than a moral solution to a question of justice. Quotas further suffer the moral deficiency of denying the refugee a choice in where to settle as would-be citizens. This deficiency is less immediate in the EU due to its citizens’ shared citizenship.