Introduction

Abstract

Refugees and asylum-seekers have come to represent the Achilles’ heel of liberal democratic states (Turton, 2003). The response of governments to their presence, and especially the level of compassion they attract, is an important indicator of their engagement with the perceived threat of globalisation to national sovereignty. The increasing numbers of asylum-seekers and refugees in the last two decades, the sense of crisis associated with them, and the ways in which their rights are defined and addressed are all important reasons for looking at forced migration as a separate category for social research (Loizos, 2000). Refugees and asylum-seekers today are often seen as aliens, strangers and the ultimate Others in society, and as such expose inconsistencies in the various ideologies that underlie the modern liberal democratic nation-state.