The Refugee Regime: Sovereignty, Belonging and the Political of Forced Migration

Abstract

This chapter discusses the Refugee Regime as a combination of certain institutions that are inherently political in their conflicting determinations of who receives protection or assistance. The Asylum Regime affords protection to migrants who lost recourse to basic rights in their former residence countries. In the Global Refugee Regime, in contrast, attention is placed on assistance and human rights as the majority of refugees lingers in protracted situations. Between the national and universal, refugee policies are often formulated within Regional Refugee Regimes that build on international refugee law but amend it according to regional history and norms. Finally, the Political Refugee Regime is premised on the democratic process by which the basic rights that refugee protection promises can be offered only. The Refugee Regime then is a distinct yet inherently contested part of the Migration Regime that extends the political notion of belonging and sovereignty to those considered devoid of basic rights.