What is owed to people who are forced to flee their homes? There are around 20 million refugees in the world today. Refugees are legally entitled to asylum in the form of entry to other states. But how should we decide, from a moral point of view, who is entitled to this protection, and on what grounds? How should we distinguish refugees from other people in need of protection? And what are refugees entitled to in their new states? In this course we will discuss the growing literature on the proper definition of ‘refugeehood’ and consider how this relates to the question of what displaced people are owed in their state of asylum. Students will learn the history of the legal approaches to refugeehood and asylum, as well as the moral debates about what displaced people are owed.
