Asylum as Reparation

“Souter is the first to provide a systematic and comprehensive reflection on the idea that under certain circumstances states can be morally required to grant asylum as reparation for unjustified harms. His discussion is clear, careful, and philosophically sophisticated. This is an important contribution.”

— Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto, Canada 
“What does justice for refugees require? James Souter provides fresh insights into this critical question through his incisive examination of asylum as a form of reparation. Souter illuminates responsibilities towards those displaced in conflicts and in connection with colonial legacies and the effects of climate change, and the conditions in which the provision of asylum may help to redress such complex harms. This ambitious and important book will be of great interest to anyone concerned with respect for refugees’ rights, and accountability for harms endured by forced migrants.”
— Megan Bradley, Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar, Political Science and International Development Studies, McGill University, Canada

This book argues that states have a special obligation to offer asylum as a form of reparation to refugees for whose flight they are responsible. It shows the great relevance of reparative justice, and the importance of the causes of contemporary forced migration, for our understanding of states’ responsibilities to refugees. Part I explains how this view presents an alternative to the dominant humanitarian approach to asylum in political theory and some practice. Part II outlines the conditions under which asylum should act as a form of reparation, arguing that a state owes this form of asylum to refugees where it bears responsibility for the unjustified harms that they experience, and where asylum is the most fitting form of reparation available. Part III explores some of the ethical implications ofthis reparative approach to asylum for the workings of states’ asylum systems and the international politics of refugee protection. 
James Souter is a lecturer at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds, UK. He holds a DPhil from the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford, and has published articles in academic journals such as Political Studies, International Affairs and the Journal of Social Philosophy.