Abstract
Temporariness has become the norm in contemporary refugee protection. Many refugees face extended periods of time waiting for permanent status, either in camps or living among citizens in their state of asylum. Whilst this practice of keeping refugees waiting is of benefit to states, I argue that not only is it harmful to refugees but it also constitutes an injustice. First, I outline the prevalence of temporary assistance in the refugee protection regime. Second, I outline the orthodox view on temporary refugee protection – it is acceptable as long as it is not indefinite. I then spend the remainder of the article considering four arguments against temporary refugee protection: the plan argument, the reciprocity argument, the domination argument, and the compounding injustice argument. I contend that the first two arguments, which already feature in the literature, merely show that temporary protection is harmful to refugees. My own arguments on domination and compounding injustice show, instead, that giving refugees temporary protection constitutes an injustice. The domination argument allows us to critique the current practice of temporary refugee protection, whereas the compounding injustice argument shows that temporariness in any form constitutes an injustice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 51-72 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | European Journal of Political Theory |
| Volume | 22 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Early online date | 29 Nov 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article was completed whilst receiving funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and St John’s College Oxford.
Funding Information:
I am grateful to Jamie Draper, Rufaida Al Hashmi, Hallvard Sandven, Maxime Lepoutre, Samuel Ritholtz, Clara Sandelind, David Miller, Christine Straehle and my supervisor Matthew Gibney for their helpful comments on many drafts of this article. I would also like to thank my two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. This article was presented at the Oxford Work in Progress in Political Theory Workshop and the Normative Theory of Immigration Workshop. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This article was completed whilst receiving funding from the Economic and Social Research Council and St John’s College Oxford.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.
