INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL THEORY SERIES EDITOR: GARY BROWNING Asylum as Reparation Refuge and Responsibility for the Harms of Displacement James Souter International Political Theory Series Editor Gary Browning, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK The Palgrave International Political Theory Series provides students and scholars with cutting-edge scholarship that explores the ways in which we theorise the international. Political theory has by tradition implic- itly accepted the bounds of the state, and this series of intellectually rigorous and innovative monographs and edited volumes takes the disci- plineforward,reflectingboththeburgeoningofIRasadisciplineandthe concurrent internationalisation of traditional political theory issues and concepts.Offeringawide-rangingexaminationofhowInternationalPoli- ticsistobeinterpreted,thetitlesintheseriesthusbridgetheIR-political theory divide. The aim of the series is to explore international issues in analytic,historicalandradicalwaysthatcomplementandextendcommon forms of conceiving international relations such as realism, liberalism and constructivism. This series is indexed by Scopus. More information about this series at https://link.springer.com/bookseries/14842 James Souter Asylum as Reparation Refuge and Responsibility for the Harms of Displacement James Souter School of Politics and International Studies University of Leeds Leeds, UK ISSN 2662-6039 ISSN 2662-6047 (electronic) International Political Theory ISBN 978-3-030-62447-7 ISBN 978-3-030-62448-4 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62448-4 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2022 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respecttothematerialcontainedhereinorforanyerrorsoromissionsthatmayhavebeen made.Thepublisherremainsneutralwithregardtojurisdictionalclaimsinpublishedmaps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Oleksiy Maksymenko/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Acknowledgements I have accumulated many debts as this work has made its long journey from MSc dissertation, to doctoral thesis, to its current form a decade later. First and foremost, my supervisor throughout my postgraduate studies, Matthew Gibney, has deeply shaped my understanding of the ethics and politics of asylum and refugee protection, and I am grateful for his invaluable support, guidance and encouragement. During these studies, I was fortunate to receive very helpful written and/or oral feed- back on my work in progress from Jenny Allsopp, Megan Bradley, Roger Duthie,MarcusCarlsenHäggrot,RobHeimburger,DilettaLauro,Susan MacDougall and Jonathan Seglow, as well as from audiences at confer- ences and seminars in Oxford, Copenhagen, Sibiu and Cairo. My exam- iners at various stages of the doctorate—namely Alexander Betts, Daniel Butt, Dawn Chatty, Katy Long and David Miller—also really helped me todevelopmywork.Mypostgraduatestudieswereonlymadepossibleby a full scholarship from the Economic and Social Research Council. As the manuscript gradually made its way to completion, I have bene- fited from further feedback and support. I would like to thank Blair Peruniak, who has offered me very valuable input and encouragement throughout this project, providing challenging comments during long conversations not only on my draft doctoral thesis, but also on the book manuscript. Since moving to Leeds, I have been glad of discussions with and support from colleagues, particularly Laura Considine, Derek Edyvane, Josh Hobbs, Jason Ralph and Kerri Woods. Members of the v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Centre for Contemporary Political Theory at Leeds offered very helpful advice and support in the final stages of writing. When developing my argument in Chapter 5 of this book, I received useful guidance from Christina Nick, and I am grateful to Derek for the opportunity to try out an early version of that chapter at a MANCEPT workshop at the University of Manchester in September 2017. Iwasalsoveryappreciativeoftheopportunitytoparticipateinawork- shoponthedraftmanuscriptofthisbookattheannualconferenceofthe AssociationforPoliticalThoughtinOxfordinJanuary2020.Inaddition to the conference organisers, particularly large thanks are due to the two discussants at the workshop, David Owen and Clara Sandelind, for very helpful comments on a previous version of the whole manuscript. I am also grateful for detailed feedback from an anonymous reviewer. Anne Birchley-Brun and Ambra Finotello at Palgrave Macmillan offered very useful and reliable support, as well as much patience, as I completed the manuscript. Earlier versions of some passages of this book were published in Political Studies as ‘Towards a Theory of Asylum as Reparation for Past Injustice’ (2014, 62(2), 326-342) and in the Journal of Refugee Studies as ‘Durable Solutions as Reparation for the Unjust Harms of Displacement: Who Owes What to Refugees?’ (2014, 27(2), 171-190). I am grateful for helpful feedback from anonymous reviewers for these journals, as well as to those for the Journal of Social Philosophy. Theusualdisclaimer—thatanyremainingerrorsandshortcomingsaremy responsibility alone—of course applies. This work took shape during a long period of mental health difficul- ties, and I am very grateful to my family, friends and colleagues for their supportthroughout.Withoutongoingsupportfrommymother,Annette Souter, I doubt I would have completed the thesis at all, let alone this book. My brother, Andrew Souter, offered a valuable pair of eyes as I finished both projects. Finally, I am grateful to Agi for her love and support, and to Marianna and Robin: it is because of them all that I got there in the end. Praise for AsylumasReparation “Howshouldtheroleofexternalstatesingeneratingrefugeeflowsinform our understanding of obligations to refugees? In this book James Souter provides a lucid and compelling response to this question that elaborates the place of reparations within the moral functions of asylum. Working through a range of cases, Souter demonstrates the scope and significance of this reparative function for state responsibilities and its important role in strengthening the international refugee regime. This is a vital contri- bution to the political ethics of asylum that significantly develops the field.” —Professor David Owen, Politics and International Relations, School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Southampton “In this excellent book, James Souter explores the urgent question of state responsibility for asylum. Which countries should be responsible for refugees,andwhy?Heprovidesanoriginal,compelling,andnuancedcase forviewingasylumasreparationforstates’roleinthecausesdisplacement, whetherduetomilitaryintervention,climatechange,orcoloniallegacies. AsylumasReparationisasignificantcontributiontoPoliticalTheoryand Refugee Studies, which will be of great interest to students, researchers, and practitioners interested in the design of more just refugee policies.” —Alexander Betts, Professor of Forced Migration and International Affairs, University of Oxford vii viii PRAISE FOR ASYLUM AS REPARATION “This book fills an important gap in the literature on the ethics of asylum, by detailing how asylum can be a form of reparation rather than mainly a fulfilment of humanitarian obligations. Unlike dominant accounts of asylum, this book emphasises the role of refugee-receiving statesincontributingtotheproductionofrefugees.Thisemphasisought to strongly impact how the literature as a whole understands asylum, leading us towards a more political and historical understanding. The book is exceptionally well-written and, as the first account of asylum as reparation, will be one of the key texts in this field.” —Clara Sandelind, University of Manchester “Asylum as Reparation is an insightful, sophisticated, original work that forces us to rethink the traditional moral basis for protecting refugees. By highlighting the need to take the historical wrongs suffered by the displaced seriously, Souter has produced a book that is essential reading for anyone interested in the future of asylum.” —Matthew J. Gibney, Professor of Politics and Forced Migration, University of Oxford Contents 1 Introduction 1 Foregrounding the Causes of Forced Migration 2 Military Intervention and Displacement 3 Climate Change and Displacement 4 Colonial Legacies and Displacement 4 A Reparative Approach to Asylum 5 Structure of the Argument 11 References 16 Part I Asylum as a Form of Reparation 2 Asylum and its Humanitarian Function 23 Asylum’s Moral Functions 24 Asylum’s Humanitarian Function 29 Existing Understandings of Humanitarian Asylum 30 A Revised Conception of Humanitarian Asylum 37 References 39 3 Asylum’s Reparative Function 43 The Principle of Reparation 43 The Case for Viewing Asylum Reparatively 51 Asylum as Restitution, Compensation and Satisfaction 53 What This Argument is Not 59 References 60 ix