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Differentiating refugees: Asylum, sanctuary, refuge

Differentiating refugees: Asylum, sanctuary, refuge
Differentiating refugees: Asylum, sanctuary, refuge
This chapter offers a practice-based normative reconstruction of the international refugee regime that make a case for the differentiation of three distinct refugee statuses: asylum, sanctuary and refuge. It begins by identifying two distinct pictures of refugeehood - humanitarian and political – and arguing that we need a way of overcoming this opposition. It then proceeds to offer a reconstruction of the formation and development of the international refugee regime as one in which both political and humanitarian aspects are central to its internal dynamics. Drawing on a legitimacy-based argument for construing the normative foundation of the institution of refugeehood in terms of the obligation of the international order to stand in loco civitatis to necessary fleers, the argument distinguishes three forms that this relationship can take – asylum, sanctuary and refuge – in response to different types of reasons compelling flight and as entailing different responsibilities while all falling under the general norm of non-refoulement. I conclude by drawing attention to the way in which this view overcomes the humanitarian/political division and allows for a clarity of communicative expression in the grants of these distinct refugee statuses.
19-38
Cambridge University Press
Owen, David
9fc71bca-07d1-44af-9248-1b9545265a58
Straehle, Christine
Miller, David
Owen, David
9fc71bca-07d1-44af-9248-1b9545265a58
Straehle, Christine
Miller, David

Owen, David (2019) Differentiating refugees: Asylum, sanctuary, refuge. In, Straehle, Christine and Miller, David (eds.) The Political Philosophy of Refuge. Cambridge University Press, pp. 19-38. (doi:10.1017/9781108666466.002).

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

This chapter offers a practice-based normative reconstruction of the international refugee regime that make a case for the differentiation of three distinct refugee statuses: asylum, sanctuary and refuge. It begins by identifying two distinct pictures of refugeehood - humanitarian and political – and arguing that we need a way of overcoming this opposition. It then proceeds to offer a reconstruction of the formation and development of the international refugee regime as one in which both political and humanitarian aspects are central to its internal dynamics. Drawing on a legitimacy-based argument for construing the normative foundation of the institution of refugeehood in terms of the obligation of the international order to stand in loco civitatis to necessary fleers, the argument distinguishes three forms that this relationship can take – asylum, sanctuary and refuge – in response to different types of reasons compelling flight and as entailing different responsibilities while all falling under the general norm of non-refoulement. I conclude by drawing attention to the way in which this view overcomes the humanitarian/political division and allows for a clarity of communicative expression in the grants of these distinct refugee statuses.

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Owen, Differentiating Refugees - Asylum Sanctuary and Refuge (revised) - Author's Original
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Submitted date: 15 December 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: November 2019
Published date: 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 427066
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427066
PURE UUID: cc28e50f-200f-41d7-8b58-63ea81ee8d8f
ORCID for David Owen: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-8865-6332

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Date deposited: 21 Dec 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:50

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Contributors

Author: David Owen ORCID iD
Editor: Christine Straehle
Editor: David Miller

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