Introduction: Symposium on Acceptable and Unacceptable Criteria for Prioritizing Among Refugees in a Nonideal World

Abstract

All persons have a right to seek and find asylum. Arguably, the international community, or the states that comprise it, have a duty to provide such asylum. In the present circumstances, such rights of refugees, or the duties of the receiving states, are not always fulfilled. Not everyone is able to seek, let alone find, asylum, and many refugees, all deserving of asylum, are left unprotected, living in permanent limbos in camps and shelters, or with other precarious, even illegal statuses.<p>

<p>This symposium addresses the following question, which the prevailing non-ideal circumstances of refugee protection give rise to: <i>What, if any, are the acceptable principles for selecting refugees for admission in circumstances where not all refugees – deserving of asylum – are admitted?</i> The answers one gives to this question depend on a variety of factors. These include one’s definition of a refugee, one’s understanding of the present refugee regime, as well as the broader normative views one has on the functioning of the international order, or, for that matter, morality in general.