Immigration Law Commons^™

State-Centered Refugee Law: From Resettlement To Containment, T. Alexander Aleinikoff

Michigan Journal of International Law

This paper will explore the international regime of refugee law, seeking to show how legal "solutions" to the "refugee problem" are profoundly state-centered. I will argue that discussions of "solutions" in refugee law and policy have taken a dramatic turn in recent years, replacing an exilic bias with a source-control bias. This new orientation focuses attention on countries of origin, supporting repatriation and human rights monitoring before and after return. I suggest that the shift in emphasis, albeit grounded in part in humanitarian concerns, presents real risks when realized within a system committed to the protection of human rights …