Date: 2022
Type: Article
Who cares what the people think? : public attitudes and refugee protection in Europe
Politics, philosophy & economics, 2022, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 313-344
RUHS, Martin, Who cares what the people think? : public attitudes and refugee protection in Europe, Politics, philosophy & economics, 2022, Vol. 21, No. 3, pp. 313-344
- https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75016
Retrieved from Cadmus, EUI Research Repository
This paper discusses why and how public attitudes should matter in regulating asylum and refugee protection in rich democracies, with a focus on Europe. Taking a realistic approach, I argue that public views constitute a soft feasibility constraint on effective and sustainable policies towards asylum seekers and refugees, and that a failure to take seriously and understand the attitudes of the host country’s population can have a very damaging effect on refugee protection and migrants’ rights in practice. Bringing together insights from political philosophy, the politics of asylum, and research on public attitudes, I develop my argument by discussing why ‘what the people think’ should matter in asylum and refugee polices; how public views can and should matter given the well-known challenges with measuring attitudes and policy preferences; and what the prevailing public views might mean for the reform of asylum and refugee policies in Europe.
Additional information:
Published online: 26 April 2022
Cadmus permanent link: https://hdl.handle.net/1814/75016
Full-text via DOI: 10.1177/1470594X221085701
ISSN: 1470-594X; 1741-3060
Publisher: Sage
Files associated with this item
- Name:
- RUHS_PPE_2022.pdf
- Size:
- 551.8Kb
- Format:
- Description:
- Full-text in Open Access (Published ...