The duty to be generous (karam): Alternatives to rights-based asylum in the Middle East

Abstract

The international standard of providing protection to a category of people who have crossed state borders and fit the legal definition of 'refugee' is a rights-based construction fashionable in public discourse at present. Middle Eastern constructions of duty-based obligations to the guest, stranger, and person-in-need are, however, less well understood. This article explores the disconnect between international rights-based protection approaches to refuge and duty-based asylum (karam) commonly accepted in Middle Eastern societies. Returning to an exploration of Marcel Mauss' Essay on the Gift, it asks whether we are abrogating our moral responsibilities when we permit a 'rights-based approach' to asylum to prevail. In other words, when we mainstream 'rights' do we repress our human urge to provide refuge to those in need? Should we perhaps be looking for a more holistic engagement with humanitarian assistance and delivery that brings together a duty-based responsibility with a 'rights-based' approach? More than 60 per cent of the world's refugees currently huddle along the eastern (and southern) rim of the Mediterranean Sea. These-more than 10 million people-include Palestinians, Iraqis, and now Syrians who have fled violent conflict in their countries over the past century. Providing assistance to these enormous numbers of people has not been easy. Refuge, asylum, and sanctuary in the Middle East have become highly contested notions with many international human rights concepts competing with local and regional understandings. The international legal standard of providing protection to a category of people who have crossed international borders