User:MajesticForest/sandbox

 Topic Question :"Should there be a market in Asylum Services" 

Main source and inspiration:

Johhannes Himmelreich (proposes commodifying asylums)

 Table of Contents: 


 * 1) Keywords and Concepts
 * 2) Defining an asylum
 * 3) Degradation
 * 4) Corruption argument
 * 5) Political Cases
 * 6) Arguments in favor of commodifying
 * 7) Stance and Conclusion
 * 8) Work to be improved upon

 Keywords/Concepts 


 * Asylum Rights
 * Asylum Services (what is being bought and sold)
 * Duty of non-refoulement (The state must grant protection for the duration of the application)
 * Egalitarianism (The belief that everybody is equal and have equal rights and opportunities)
 * Good Faith (Sincere interaction with the intention of being fair)

''' What is an asylum? '''

An asylum is legal protection granted to individuals who migrate but are too afraid to return to their home country for varying reasons.


 * Persecution
 * Race
 * Religion
 * Nationality
 * Political Opinion
 * Social Group

''' What is being degraded? '''

Two sides undermine the meaning of asylums: Political side and the Asylum Seeker side

 Political Side 

In the political side, politicians do not necessarily want to take in refugees and therefore seek to outsource this duty.

 Asylum Seeker Side: 

People make excuses to migrate to more prosperous countries. The issue this causes is it increases the number of applications the government has to go through and it takes away opportunity for people who actually need it.

''' What is happening? ''' (What transaction is being corrupted)

People are pushing for open market asylum services (Paying other states to fulfill duties for them)


 * Processing asylum applications
 * Protecting and housing asylum seekers
 * Integrating them into society.
 * This could potentially be done in a bidding format

Cases:

Europe is pushing for asylum outsourcing

Trump Seeking to outsource asylums to Guatemala

 How this could work 

UK and Ghana outsources asylums.

UK is notified someone wants to apply for an asylum in any border in UK--> UK pays Ghana to take and process application --> Ghana takes the money and fulfill duties in behalf of UK.

Added Notes:


 * Private companies do not engage in this transaction


 * You are selling the possibility for citizenship since part of the duty of asylum services is to potentially integrate the person into your society.

 Arguments for 


 * Help with irregular migration
 * Both benefit if the transaction has consent (Welfare based argument)
 * Welfare gains from trade mentality (Poverty may lead you to sell your kidney but you are still better off if you sell your kidney anyway)

 Minor Arguments Against 


 * Upholding standards will be difficult (different human standards between countries)
 * If something goes wrong who is to blame? how to you split or delegate burden

 My Stance: 

What is being sold is the duty to of providing asylums to those who need it. This is degrading the meaning of helping others and instead commodifying duty and turning it into a good or service through outsourcing.

Main problems:


 * You are taking opportunity away from others: space is limited and you cannot accommodate everyone.
 * You risk alienating.
 * You are degrading the duty of helping others.
 * This is setting precedent to paying people to perform duties and responsibilities for you. (Not just regular duties, but duties tied to good faith). It is not an act of "good faith" faith anymore if you pay someone to do it for you.
 * Virtues will be irrelevant to rich people.



Work in the future


 * Find and study what the Canadian's Law in regards to asylums.
 * Find if there is already a market for it
 * Study the Germany and EUN case

 What I am not happy about: 


 * Arguments for commodification
 * Degradation
 * I want to add more stubs or categories since currently I feel my sandbox is lacking
 * There are a lot of new sources, opinions and cases to the topic, main focus will be getting familiar with all of it.
 * I would like to find a source that is against commodifying asylums as well written as the one in the optional reading section of the syllabus.

 Question: 

Do you think commodifying asylums will be more beneficial long term yes or no?



Links to cases to be further researched:

Link to reading: