Ideas from the Trenches - Refuge

The sense of a moral duty to give refuge to a stranger in need resonates across human cultures and deep into our history. However, as PhD studentsKiran BanerjeeandCraig Damian Smithargue, the values of the nation state can clash with our profound moral beliefs, creating big problems when we try to apply and honour international human rights. To get beyond this clash, they propose a radical re-thinking of the institutions that shape how nations respond to the voices of refugees.

**Note: this episode originally broadcast in November 2015.Since then Kiran Banerjee completed his PhD thesis and is currently doing his post-doctorate at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Craig Damian Smith is wrapping up his PhD. In 2016 he helped found Together Project-- an organization that matches Canadians with government-assisted refugees to help foster refugee integration.

Participants in the program:

• Mary Jo Leddy -- Founder and Director of Romero House . Romero House has provided temporary housing to more than 1,500 refugees.
  
• Alexander Betts-- Director of the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. He recently co-authored an article in Foreign Affairs magazine called Help Refugees Help Themselves: Let Displaced Syrians Join the Labour Market.
  
• Joseph Carens-- Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. His most recent book is The Ethics of Immigration.