Throughout human history people have been driven from their homes by wars, unjust treatment, earthquakes, and hurricanes. The reality of forced migration is not new, nor is awareness of the suffering of the displaced a recent discovery. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that at the end of 2007 there were 67 million persons in the world who had been forcibly displaced from their homes—including more than 16 million people who had to flee across an international border for fear of being persecuted due to race, religion, nationality, social group, or political opinion.

Driven from Home advances the discussion on how best to protect and assist the growing number of persons who have been forced from their homes and proposes a human rights framework to guide political and policy responses to forced migration. This thought-provoking volume brings together contributors from several disciplines, including international affairs, law, ethics, economics, and theology, to advocate for better responses to protect the global community’s most vulnerable citizens.

David Hollenbach, SJ, is director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice and holds the Human Rights and International Justice University Chair at Boston College. He is the editor of Refugee Rights: Ethics, Advocacy, and Africa and author of The Global Face of Public Faith: Politics, Human Rights, and Christian Ethics.

"Driven from Home discusses how the 'duty to protect' refugees should be defined and implemented and how the international community might better fulfill their responsibility to the world's uprooted. "

Introduction: Human Rights and New Challenges of Protecting Forced MigrantsDavid Hollenbach

Part I: New Realities of Protection in a Human Rights Framework

1. Rethinking the International Refugee Regime in Light of Human Rights and the Global Common Good Susan F. Martin

Part II: Normative Responses: Religion, Human Rights, Gender, and Culture

2. Justice for the Displaced: The Challenge of a Christian Understanding Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator

3. Human Rights as a Framework for Advocacy on Behalf of the Displaced: The Approach of the Catholic ChurchSilvano Tomasi

4. No Easy Road to Freedom: Engendering and Enculturating Forced MigrationM. Brinton Lykes

Part III: Protecting Rights at the Border: Denial of Asylum and Systemic Responses

5. Human Rights as a Challenge to National Policies that Exclude Refugees: Two Case Studies from Southeast AsiaFrank Brennan

6. Loving Humanity While Accepting Real People: A Critique and a Cautious Affirmation of the "Political" in U. S. Asylum and Refugee LawDaniel Kanstroom

7. Closed Borders, Human Rights, and Democratic LegitimationArash Abizadeh

Part IV: Protection in the Face of Conflict and War

8. The Experience of Displacement by Conflict: The Plight of Iraqi RefugeesMaryanne Loughry

9. The Ethics and Policy of War in Light of DisplacementJ. Bryan Hehir

10. Reinsterting "Never" into "Never Again": Political Innovations and the Responsibility to ProtectThomas G. Weiss

Part V: Protection in Response to Economic Need and Environmental Crises

11. Economic and Environmental Displacement: Implications for Durable SolutionsMary M. DeLorey

12. Refugees or Economic Migrants: Catholic Thought on the Moral Roots of the Distinction Christopher Llanos

ContributorsIndex