It is true that the number of refugees requiring protection is high and that the responsibility for protecting refugees is not equitably distributed internationally. UNHCR statistics show that there are 26.3 million refugees globally and that developing countries host eighty-six per cent of the world’s refugees. This disparity in responsibility-sharing is partly a matter of geography. That is, states located near crisis zones are most likely to see an influx of people fleeing from conflict. However, it is undeniable that restrictive immigration policies implemented in key host states such as Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States have resulted in a deterrence strategy that stops refugees from accessing protection. As such, there exists a serious gap in refugee policy globally that requires new approaches and solutions.

One new approach may be to reconceptualise asylum. Many current policies conceptualise asylum as a humanitarian response directed to help vulnerable individuals. A focus solely on humanitarianism is a problem because it paints refugees as objects of charity and does not adequately reflect the economic contribution they may make to asylum host states. Thus, there is a question as to the role that economic considerations should play in this context. Could utilising economic arguments avoid this oversimplification of refugees and encourage recalcitrant asylum host nations (such as the United States) to re-engage with asylum principles and to open their borders?

Betts contributes such a new perspective by recognising that humanitarianism is a valuable principle underlying refugee protection, but must be supplemented by a development-based approach to support the capabilities of refugees – put simply, to ‘help refugees to help themselves’. The central question posed by Betts is: how can we create sustainable refugee policies that enable displaced people to live in safety and dignity, while operating at scale?

The Wealth of Refugees answers this question by focusing on refugees in camps and cities in Africa. It uses case studies from this region to identify approaches that can be effective in improving the welfare of refugees, which can increase social cohesion between refugees and host communities, and reduce the need for onward migration. Betts argues that the key lies in unlocking the potential contributions of refugees themselves, noting that refugees bring skills, talents, and aspirations and can be a benefit to receiving societies. One of its central premises is that realising this potential relies upon moving beyond a purely humanitarian focus to fully include refugees in host-country economies and to build economic opportunities in refugee-hosting regions.

For Betts, Uganda offers an example of a country where refugees are permitted to settle and to engage fully in the local economy. It is true that Uganda is considered a relatively successful asylum host state. It hosts the largest number of refugees in Africa – more than 1.45 million – and UNHCR has noted that Uganda ‘has one of the most progressive refugee policies in the world, allowing refugees to use land for housing and farming, work, and move around the country freely’.  The use of Uganda as a case study represents an important contribution to the literature on refugee integration and protection.

In terms of specific insights and recommendations, I found the emphasis in the book on the right to work to be very compelling. Betts notes that a precondition for refugee self-reliance is the right and opportunity to work and that this will require host countries to implement legislation that gives refugees basic socio-economic entitlements. This has direct relevance to an ongoing issue in Australian refugee policy where some asylum-seekers on bridging visas are denied the right to work. It is also significant that some of what Betts argues in The Wealth of Refugees accords with the stated objectives of current global refugee policy. For instance, one objective of the UN Global Compact on Refugees is to ‘enhance refugee self-reliance’.

The work presented in The Wealth of Refugees represents a continuation of Betts’s previous contributions to refugee literature, in which he has also emphasised the need to incorporate economic considerations and refugee self-reliance principles. For instance, in his co-authored book Refuge: Transforming a broken refugee system (2017), Betts and Paul Collier argue that the refugee system fails to provide a comprehensive solution to a fundamental problem: how to reintegrate displaced people into society. In that book, Betts and Collier combined a humanitarian approach with a new economic agenda that begins with jobs, restores autonomy, and rebuilds people’s ability to help themselves and their societies.

Going back further to his book Politics by Persuasion: International cooperation in the refugee regime (2009), Betts also argues that the international politics of refugee protection are shaped by the stalemate that exists between developing states in the South (where most refugees first seek asylum) and the developed states in the North that provide resources for refugee protection and/or offer refugee resettlement. 

The Wealth of Refugees is interesting, as it successfully brings these two sets of issues together – marrying the analysis of economic imperatives with the difficulties posed by the North–South political divide – to present a sophisticated analysis of a difficult global problem. Due to the fact that Betts has been able to develop his analysis over a number of volumes and has had the opportunity to refine and solidify his key arguments, the quality of the research and analysis is very high. This is thus a timely and thought-provoking contribution to refugee policy literature.

While this is clearly an important contribution, the book raises some conceptual concerns. Although I acknowledge that global refugee policy requires reform and fresh solutions, some aspects of the emphasis on economic contribution are problematic.

First, an emphasis on the economic contribution of refugees carries with it some risk of commodifying refugees. This can be seen in the increasing focus in some asylum host states on choosing refugees who have skills that are useful to host states, not simply those who are in humanitarian need. Could this therefore have the effect of encouraging states such as Australia to take only those refugees who can easily be used to contribute to the economy?

This leads into the second, related question: if economic and developmental imperatives are to be a greater part of refugee policy, what balance should be struck between humanitarian imperatives and economic ones? While I agree that the potential of refugees to contribute economically to a host state should be considered, this should not overshadow the continuing humanitarian obligation that countries have to accept refugees fleeing persecution.

Despite these notes of caution, The Wealth of Refugees represents an important work by a leading scholar in the field and it will no doubt be highly influential in shaping the future of global refugee policy in coming years.