Global displacement in the 21st century: Towards an ethical framework

Cole, Phillip

Abstract

A body of work has emerged in political philosophy which can be termed ‘the ethics of migration’. Within that literature, there has been an increased focus on issues of displacement and protection which reflects practical concerns in the wider world. However, that focus has been predominantly upon refugees and asylum seekers and the ethical questions and challenges raised by their needs for protection. In this paper I argue that this leaves out many other issues, such as disaster-related and development-related displacements. However, addressing this absence cannot be an act of ‘gap-filling’. Rather, political philosophers who wish to address this wider understanding of displacement in their work need to draw upon and learn from other fields, disciplines and perspectives in ways that may radically disrupt and reform how the ethics of protection should be approached. In this paper I take some preliminary steps in exploring what an ethical framework for displacement might look like, by providing some of the elements of a groundwork for this project.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 9, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Aug 20, 2020
• Publication Date: Aug 20, 2020
• Deposit Date: Sep 17, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 21, 2022
• Journal: Journal of Global Ethics
• Print ISSN: 1744-9626
• Electronic ISSN: 1744-9634
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 203-219
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17449626.2020.1783566
• Keywords: displacement, protection, ethics of migration, ethics of displacement, refugees
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/6691666