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Best regards, Andrew Stewart - - - Subscribe to the Washington Babylon newsletter via https://washingtonbabylon.com/newsletter/ Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <h-rev...@lists.h-net.org> > Date: June 13, 2020 at 10:41:09 AM EDT > To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > Cc: H-Net Staff <revh...@mail.h-net.org> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Diplo]: Oltman on Aleinikoff and Zamore, 'The Arc > of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee Regime' > Reply-To: h-rev...@lists.h-net.org > > T. Alexander Aleinikoff, Leah Zamore. The Arc of Protection: > Reforming the International Refugee Regime. Stanford Stanford > University Press, 2019. viii + 169 pp. $14.00 (paper), ISBN > 978-1-5036-1141-2. > > Reviewed by Anna R. Oltman (University of Wisconsin-Madison) > Published on H-Diplo (June, 2020) > Commissioned by Seth Offenbach > > In _The Arc of Protection,_ T. Alexander Aleinikoff and Leah Zamore > take up the dual perennial questions of refugee studies: what should > refugee protection consist of, and for whom? The term "arc" of > protection refers to the trajectory of refugee protection since the > mid-twentieth century, during which time there has been an expansion > of the range of actors who provide protection to refugees, the > content of that protection, and the categories of people who receive > protection. Though the authors are not overly sanguine about the > present state of the international refugee regime, they present this > historical arc as a progressive one that has moved beyond the overly > specific persecution-based regime imagined in the 1951 Refugee > Convention. The problem for today's refugee regime is that as our > understanding of who counts as a refugee and how the international > community ought to treat them has expanded, powerful states have > pushed back with ever more vigorous assertions of sovereignty. > > The book begins in chapter 1, "The Inconvenient Refugee," by > examining the idea of refugee protection contained in the 1951 > Refugee Convention and its evolution over time, culminating in the > 2016 Global Compact on Refugees. Whereas in the early years of the > post-World War II era the imperative for the international community > was to guarantee the rights of those who no longer had the protection > of a sovereign state, over time it has become increasingly focused on > humanitarian assistance for displaced people and the countries that > host them, primarily in the global South. This shift from rights to > rescue in the mission of the United Nations High Commissioner for > Refugees (UNHCR) and refugee advocacy groups has been well documented > in the literature, but the authors shed new light on the uneasy > relationship between state interests and individual rights that has > been its driving force. The Convention itself, they point out, was > not written to provide a framework for solving mass displacement but > rather to establish a pathway for individuals outside of the system > of sovereign nation-states to escape the condition of > "rightslessness." Yet this system was premised on the idea that most > displaced people would soon return to their country of origin or > integrate seamlessly into a country of first asylum, so that Western > states (as the drafters of the Refugee Convention) would only be > expected to absorb the relatively small number of individuals who > could do neither. The Convention makes no requirement that states > resettle refugees to their territory or support one another in their > local protection efforts. As the authors note, this leaves the legal > protection of refugee rights contingent on admittance to a state, > while also preserving the right of states to regulate entry and stay > on their territory. This is a system that privileges state > sovereignty over cooperation, though it is worth noting that with the > vast majority of displaced people today living either within their > country of origin or in neighboring states in the global South, it is > primarily the states of the global North that benefit from this > arrangement. > > Chapter 2, "The International Protection Regime," illustrates how > this system reflects a contested and historically contingent > understanding of refugee protection. The legal and conceptual > foundations of the regime regard the treatment of refugees by host > societies as a stand-in for the protection that should be offered by > their countries of origin. Displaced people seeking asylum, > particularly in Western countries, must demonstrate that their origin > country has failed to protect them from political persecution, which > combined with the individual's flight from home constitutes a person > as a legitimate refugee. The authors argue that the stickiness of > this focus on persecution is at odds with how the arc of protection > has actually progressed, in that the providers of protection have > expanded over time to include a wider range of actors than just host > states, just as the scope of who can meaningfully be understood to be > a refugee has expanded as well. > > What then is refugee protection, in theory or in practice? In chapter > 3, "Principles of Protection," the authors offer a theory of > protection based on the international responsibility to provide > displaced persons with safety, access to asylum, solutions to the > problem of displacement, and opportunities for mobility and voice. > This framework helpfully delineates the policy space of refugee > protection, which involves everything from patrolling and policing > unauthorized border crossings to providing health care and employment > opportunities to recognized refugees to addressing the root causes of > displacement in origin countries. The authors describe a regime that > reflects the key principles of refugee rights contained in > international law, refined and restated based on nearly a century of > refugee crises. For example, they argue that the principle of > _non-refoulement_, the Refugee Convention's requirement that states > not return displaced people to a country where they are likely to > face persecution, remains essential to the protection regime but must > be understood in an expanded way that acknowledges a range of harms > that return might cause beyond targeted political persecution. This > is both practical and just, and will strike readers familiar with the > often tortured applications of _non-refoulement_ in asylum law as a > sensible approach. > > In general, this effort to articulate the principles of refugee > protection in a more general and practical way that takes into > account the complexity of contemporary displacement is an enormous > strength of this book. But if there is a place where these more > generalizable principles may give readers pause, it is in chapter 4, > "For Whom is International Protection Warranted?" Here, Aleinikoff > and Zamore take up the second perennial question of refugee studies: > protection for whom? As they acknowledge throughout the book, the > refugee regime's traditional focus on refugees as people who have > fled from political persecution has become almost absurdly > inappropriate for the world's displaced population, many of whom flee > generalized violence and instability rather than targeted > persecution, or whose experience of persecution is not readily > legible to asylum adjudicators as being political. In addition, over > half of the world's displaced people are internally displaced, > excluding them from refugee status altogether. The authors' proposed > concept of "necessary flight" speaks to a growing literature seeking > to redefine displacement in a way that reflects the manifold valid > reasons that people flee their homes. For some refugee advocates, who > have invested in the legal process of expanding the traditional > refugee definition to include victims of sexual and gender-based > violence, gang-related violence, and economic precarity, this is a > dangerous move in that it weakens the case for special protections > for designated refugees. This is an extremely difficult problem and > one that is likely to be the topic of debate for years to come. While > Aleinikoff and Zamore's theory participates in this debate, it should > primarily be understood as a framework for responding to the global > collective action problem of mass displacement, rather than the > technical and legal problem of refugee status determination within > host countries. > > The book's concluding chapter presents a framework for reform, which > the authors helpfully contrast to what they see as an existing > liberal consensus on how to repair the refugee regime. Chief among > these contrasts is the point that even progressive-minded reformers > tend to push for incremental changes within a system that preserves > state discretion above all else. For Aleinikoff and Zamore, reform > ought to prioritize global responsibility-sharing. They make a > compelling case that even if such a system asks more of countries in > the global North, the current regime is so skewed in terms of the > burden placed on less powerful countries that such a shift should not > be too much to ask. > > Overall, this book is an essential read for scholars, advocates, and > students of refugee protection at all levels of knowledge. Readers > with a background in international affairs will find the explanation > of today's protection system in terms of burden-sharing across states > to be a straightforward and accessible introduction to the problem of > providing refugee protection in an international system of sovereign > states. Those with a sophisticated understanding of refugee law and > the protection regime will find that the propositions for reform > speak directly to the ongoing debates around both state > responsibility and the definition of "refugee," while all readers > will be invited to imagine a more just and efficacious system of > protection. > > Citation: Anna R. Oltman. Review of Aleinikoff, T. Alexander; Zamore, > Leah, _The Arc of Protection: Reforming the International Refugee > Regime_. H-Diplo, H-Net Reviews. June, 2020. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54909 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
