Protecting the Right to Have Rights: Defending the Enfranchisement of Refugees

In this article I challenge the interpretation of refugees as passive beneficiaries of political decisions and make a case for their enfranchisement. Starting from literature regarding the boundary problem of democratic theory, I make a republican case for including refugees in the demos. My novel approach emphasizes that bestowing electoral rights upon refugees is a separate question from offering them full citizenship. Enfranchising the refugees is a separate, and temporary prior measure of ensuring that their freedom is protected and that their rights are not imperiled by arbitrarily imposed decisions, at least in a world which is operating under a regime of controlled, closed borders. This preoccupation with feasibility constraints also aims to separate this article from recent contributions that defended the enfranchisement of refugees.