Description
Book SynopsisWhy do decision-makers in similar liberal democracies interpret the same legal definition in very different ways? International law provides states with a common definition of a ''refugee'' as well as guidelines outlining how asylum claims should be decided. Yet, the processes by which countries determine who should be granted refugee status look strikingly different, even across nations with many political, cultural, geographical, and institutional commonalities. This book compares the refugee status determination (RSD) regimes of three popular asylum seeker destinations - the United States, Canada, and Australia. Despite similarly high levels of political resistance to accepting asylum seekers across these three states, once asylum seekers cross their borders, they access three very different systems. These differences are significant both in terms of asylum seekers'' experience of the process and in terms of their likelihood of being found to be a refugee. The book moves beyond the
Trade ReviewThis book makes an important and original contribution to the scholarly literature, especially the literature on refugees but also the broader literature on the administrative state. It shows how consequential different institutional arrangements and legal/political cultures can be. I know of no other research that has opened up the black box of the state to examine the inner dynamics of the process of refugee determination. Hamlin does so in a way that is persuasive and illuminating. Anyone who works on refugees, whether in political science or law, will want to read this book. * Joseph H. Carens, University of Toronto *
Hamlin gives us a highly original account of the politics of asylum-seeking, focusing on constitutional law and administrative practice in the U.S., Canada, and Australia. An excellent piece of scholarship and a timely book, Let Me Be a Refugee will quickly become a classic and a must-read for anyone interested in refugee policy. * James F. Hollifield, Tower Center, SMU *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements ; List of Abbreviations ; Part One ; Chapter I - Let Me Be a Refugee ; Chapter II - Building a Cross-National Comparison of RSD Regimes ; Chapter III - 'Illegal Refugees' and the Rise of Restrictive Asylum Politics ; Part Two ; Chapter IV - Courting Asylum: The Judicialization of Refugee Status Determination in the United States ; Chapter V - The 'Cadillac' Bureaucracy: Refugee Status Determination in Canada ; Chapter VI - The Battle of the 'Bouncing Ball': Refugee Status Determination in Australia ; Part Three ; Chapter VII - Asylum for Women: Reading Gender into the Refugee Definition ; Chapter VIII - Escaping the People's Republic: Chinese Asylum Claims in Three RSD Regimes ; Chapter IX - Complementary Protection in a Complicated World ; Part Four ; Chapter X - Asylum Seeker Blues and the Globalization of Law ; Appendix: List of Interviews ; Bibliography
