The Ethics and Politics of Asylum: Liberal Democracy and the Response to Refugees
Cambridge University Press
Edition: First Edition, 1/12/2008
EAN 9780521009379, ISBN10: 0521009375
Paperback, 300 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
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.