Professor Soucek Interviewed on Syrian Refugee Crisis by Capital Public Radio
Professor Brian Soucek was interviewed on the Syrian refugee crisis on the Capital Public Radio program Insight on September 16.
Professor Soucek said that to qualify for treatment as refugees under international law, people must show that they have been persecuted on one of five grounds: race, religion, national origin, political opinion, or membership in a particular social group. Individuals fleeing civil wars and other situations in which violence is pervasive throughout a society sometimes do not qualify, he said.
"On the one hand you have refugees--those who have fled persecution on account of one of the five grounds--and on the other hand you have people who are characterized as migrants, who are just seen as looking for a better life, fleeing a bad situation at home in hopes of a better life for their children," Soucek said. "Morally, it's not clear whether there should be such a big distinction between those two categories, but legally of course we've made that distinction. So to the extent that within this context people from Syria and elsewhere are being characterized as migrants rather than refugees, that brings a different set of connotations about the protections that they're owed."
Soucek also noted that, historically, the United States has been willing to take in more than the 70,000 refugees it has accepted in recent years. "In terms of the numbers, there's room for improvement there," he said.
Professor Soucek holds a JD from Yale Law School and a PhD from Columbia University. He has clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Mark. R. Kravitz in Connecticut, and Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His primary teaching and research interests are antidiscrimination law, civil procedure, constitutional law, and refugee/asylum law.