An Asylum-Seeker's Bill of Rights in a Non-Utopian World

This paper suggests a governing framework for asylum procedures for a non-utopian world. In a utopian world there would be no refugees. In a modified utopia, the root causes of forced migration would still exist, but the world's nations would eagerly open their arms to all refugees. We do not live in even this modified utopian world. The world we inhabit consists of sovereign states that jealously guard their territories, their wealth, and their ethnic makeups. In this world, there is economic, cultural, environmental, ethnic, and political resistance to the admission of refugees. Refugee-receiving states impose strict rules to limit their intakes to politically tolerable levels. While some such rules are substantive, this paper considers those rules that discourage applications, reduce approvals, or lower the administrative costs of adjudication by eliminating procedural safeguards. While taking practical account of economic, political and cultural realities, the paper insists nonetheless that certain principles of justice are so essential that they should be respected even under imperfect conditions. The article thus attempts to sketch an asylum-seeker's bill of rights for our non-Utopian world. Although the dividing line is not sharp, the paper organizes such a bill of rights around two core principles - fair access to the process and fair procedures for those who gain access. Some of the elements discussed are specific to the United States, but most are generic.