Refugee Law and Policy: Welcoming the Stranger

Catalog description

Refugee law is one of the most dynamic and rewarding areas of law. Nonetheless, in observing the administration of refugee law, we bear witness to some of the United States' most egregious human rights abuses and the abandonment, in some cases, of the rule of law. The goal of this course is to teach students the history of the norm of non-refoulement, in doing so to understand how political, religious, racial and other minority groups are intended to be protected (from persecution, from torture, and from death). Students will learn the history of the Refugee Convention-for whom the document was written, and, consequently, who is left out of protection (considering for example the treatment of victims of private-sphere persecution or climate refugees). Students will learn the role of xenophobia, racism, and subjugation of the "other" in this case the "alien"-other in administering the rule of asylum law. The class will contain a comparative analysis of refugee law under various international and domestic systems. Finally, students will learn about the treatment of child asylum seekers in the United States-namely, the treatment of children as adults in miniature and the "othering" that facilitates this deviant practice.