The End of Asylum? A Fatalistic Account

Are we witnessing an end to the institution of asylum as we know it? This article argues that we do. It offers a fatalistic account of asylum, showing that applying to (and receiving) asylum is becoming ever more difficult. States externalise migration controls to keep refugees out, push them back without allowing them to launch asylum claims when they do make it to the territories of the countries of the Global North, and restrict the rights of those refugees who have been admitted. While some theories offer hope in proposing moral change to this picture of politics, this article argues that such hope is misplaced. A generous politics of asylum is not about to reappear. Rather, to the contrary, what we ought to expect is further deterioration, the hollowing out of the institution of asylum, and its eventual disappearance. The paper applies theories on the philosophy of history and science to demonstrate this decline and to prove the pessimists right: trying to save the institution of asylum is bound to fail. A more liberal politics of asylum will demand a paradigm shift. It demands radical change to an entirely novel idea of the right to seek protection.