The ethical trilemma in refugee protection: equity, sovereignty, autonomy

Disparities in the distribution of protection responsibilities are not just unequal but also highly inequitable. Such inequities can be expected to negatively impact both the scope and the quality of protection that states are willing to provide. The paper empirically demonstrates through the analysis of Europe’s responses to forced displacement from former Yugoslavia to Ukraine, that European states have struggled to effectively address the highly inequitable distribution of refugee responsibilities. EU policy makers find it easier to develop symbolic solidarity measures than to establish more substantive policy responses, i.e. they struggle to adopt the kind of cooperation that the public goods literature suggests is necessary to overcome collective action problems. This is due to the fact that substantive refugee solidarity initiatives, such as quota-based relocation, which are promising from an equity perspective pose fundamental challenges to both national sovereignty and the individual autonomy of protection seekers. How future EU policies will seek to address such solidarity dilemmas that lie at the heart of international refugee responsibility sharing efforts will tell us much about its commitment to effective refugee protection.