The political obligations of refugees

Book section : Chapter

Refugees are people who are forced to leave their home state because their human rights cannot be protected while they remain there. This chapter explores their political obligations from three complementary angles. First, are they obliged to obey the state’s immigration laws while trying to claim asylum? The chapter rejects the argument that by seeking admission they give tacit consent to such laws, and proposes instead that where the state’s immigration regime is reasonably just, refugees are under a natural duty of justice to comply with it. However, where refugees face threats that would make compliance very costly, their obligation can be set aside on grounds of necessity. Second, do refugees once formally admitted have special obligations to integrate with their host society? The chapter explores whether such obligations might arise from gratitude for the benefits that refugees have received, but concludes that, since integration is a public good, fair play offers a better explanation. Third, it examines the duties refugees have to people remaining in the society they have left, and suggests that these stem on the one hand from their duty to testify to ongoing injustice, and on the other from their continuing associative obligations to their erstwhile compatriots. Refugees may therefore have an obligation to participate in political activities in support of those they have left behind.

Authors: Miller, D

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Host title: Oxford Handbook of Political Obligation
• Pages: 333-341
• Chapter number: 32
• Place of publication: Oxford, UK
• Publication date: 2025-09-23
• Edition: 1
• DOI: 10.1093/9780191968488.003.0032
• Language: English
• Keywords: consent; fair play; gratitude; integration; obligation; refugees; testimony
• Subtype: Chapter