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| Ethical Perspectives |
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| Issue : 2/1 (April - 1995) |
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| Refugee, Migrant, Stranger |
| Jef Van Gerwen |
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Page : 3 - 10 |
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In recent years there has been a great deal of activity and discussion on the appropriate treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. The increasing number of asylum-seekers in Western Europe, which peaked in Germany with more than 438,000 requests in 1992 alone, has been at the root of the political debate. The administrations involved seem to be unable to cope adequately with such increases, a fact which in its turn has given rise to a variety of humanitarian and juridical problems (eg. long delays, sometimes for years, in the completion of requests, the introduction of accelerated procedures, detention and repatriation problems, sanctions against transportation companies, etc.).
It is not my intention here to discuss the many technical facets of this social issue (i.e. the statistical data and their reliability, the different legislative and juridical procedures, the political departments involved). I prefer, rather, to offer a socio-ethical reflection on one particular and fundamental aspect of our attitude (as the receiving party or host nation) toward refugees, namely, the apparently unavoidable fact that they are set against the background issues of migration and social integration. In their host countries refugees have in fact been perceived primarily as immigrants and foreigners, not as refugees.
It is also not my intention to make an a priori judgment on the question. Instead, I would like to begin by inquiring into the historical and structural factors which have defined our perception of the issue. It will become clear that we can only achieve an ethically adequate treatment of refugees if we are prepared to rectify the much broader problem of our attitude to foreigners as such. |
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