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Abstract

I. Introduction

If the average person were asked to imagine a refugee, they might conjure the image of a migrant fleeing war or persecution, showing up at the border of a new country with a few belongings in hand, and asking not to be sent back to the dangerous place from which they came. In fact, it is not only the hypothetical “average person” who pictures this scenario. The international refugee protection system, developed after World War II through the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) and its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (New York Protocol), generally deals only with this type of refugee. However, this framing is drastically underinclusive, and many individuals in need of protection today do not meet the Refugee Convention’s rather strict five-part test to qualify as a “refugee.” Internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees from natural disasters or climate change, skilled laborers who might have the funds to make it to a third country but not one where their skills will truly be valuable, and many others generally do not meet its criteria.

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