James Souter is a DPhil candidate in International Development at the University of Oxford. His work addresses ethical issues surrounding asylum and refugee protection, particularly in relation to reparation for displacement. In his thesis, he is developing the argument that asylum should at times act as a form of reparation for past injustice. He holds an MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from the University of Oxford, an MA in Understanding and Securing Human Rights from the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, and a BA in Philosophy and History with European Study from the University of Exeter. He is a volunteer and trustee of the Oxford-based organisation, Asylum Welcome.
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Published in: 50.50'Bogus' asylum seekers? The ethics of truth-telling in the asylum systemThe British tabloids and the Home Office are united by their assumption that asylum seekers who lie during their claims are undeserving of protection. Yet this view runs contrary both to widely held moral principle and refugee law.
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Published in: 50.50Refugee studies: the challenge of translating hope into reality
It is one thing for rigorous research to influence policy, and another for that policy to then go an and achieve its intended positive outcome. James Souter argues that Refugee and Forced Migration studies has an important, yet ultimately subsidiary role in the task of improving the lives of refugees and forced migrants
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Published in: 50.50Rick’s café: a microcosm of asylum today
The contrast between European wartime refugees and the ‘new’ refugees has been subjected to convincing critique. Two films looking at similarities between the paradigmatic 'good' refugees of cinematic Casablanca and the beleaguered refugees in Calais's camps today provides a chance to question the 'myth of difference'.
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Published in: 50.50Asylum decision-making in the UK: disbelief or denial?
Having identified a culture of disbelief at the heart of the British Home Office, campaigners for refugee rights must also address its culture of denial.