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Colonialism, decolonisation, and the right to be human : Britain and the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees
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Mayblin, Lucy (2014) Colonialism, decolonisation, and the right to be human : Britain and the 1951 Geneva Convention on the status of refugees. Journal of Historical Sociology, 27 (3). pp. 423-441. doi:10.1111/johs.12053 ISSN 0952-1909.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/johs.12053
Abstract
The Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees is central to scholar-ship on refugee and asylum issues. It is the primary basis upon which asylumseekers make their claims to the majority of host states today and, as a key text ofthe human rights framework, has come to be associated with the very idea of auniversalised rights-bearing human being. Yet British asylum policy today is char-acterized by efforts to limit access to the right to asylum. Many scholars believe thisis because asylum seekers today are different, in character and number, to previouscohorts of applicants. This article goes back to the founding of the refugee rightsregime and investigates the exclusions of colonized peoples from access to the rightto asylum. Using Chimni’s concept of the “myth of difference”, the article demon-strates that asylum seekers have long existed outside of Europe, and that theirexclusion from international rights has been both longstanding and intentional. Thishistorical sociology suggests that the basis for critical work on the issue of asylumpolicy today must be one which takes colonial histories into account.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Political refugees -- Great Britain -- 20th century, Human rights, Colonies, Decolonization | ||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of Historical Sociology | ||||||
Publisher: | Blackwell | ||||||
ISSN: | 0952-1909 | ||||||
Official Date: | 12 March 2014 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 27 | ||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||
Page Range: | pp. 423-441 | ||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/johs.12053 | ||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) |
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