An end to asylum? Temporary protection and the erosion of refugee status

This chapter examines how state policies reinforcing the temporary nature of refugee status create and prolong insecurity for those with a recognised right to protection. In particular, the intensified scrutiny of a refugee’s continued need for protection following changes in the country of origin and narrowed paths to permanent residence undermine the secure legal status refugees have traditionally enjoyed under the 1951 Refugee Convention. After providing context for the temporary turn in refugee law, I discuss how refugee and human rights law treat ‘refugee time.’ How does law balance the rights of refugees acquired in the country of residence with a state’s interest in excluding those with no current claim to protection? Finally, I examine developments in Norwegian practice, including two supreme court judgments concerning cessation of refugee status and the subsequent revocation of a residence permit. The two cases, both involving Afghan women with children, reveal how narrow legal reasoning and prolonged administrative procedures maintain a facade of legal security while reinforcing the ‘invisibility, immobility, uncertainty and arbitrariness’ associated with chronic waiting.