Enhancing Outcome Responsibility in Assessing Moral Duties toward Refugees

• In Event: State Duties and Migrant Obligations: Who Owes What?

Abstract

This paper advances the discourse on our moral obligations towards refugees of protracted crises by proposing a nuanced application of outcome responsibility. This framework gains symbolic and practical significance in assigning reparative and remedial duties by differentiating causal and outcome responsibility through intention and involvement principles. Domestic analogies help explain the refined version of these two responsibility types, and examining the Syrian crisis within this paradigm offers a clearer understanding of entities that are “morally obligated and more likely” to help. Significantly, this argument extends to societies, emphasizing their pivotal role as bearers of the consequences of state decisions. Employing an outcome responsibility-based sense of ethical duty (ORSED) can foster more inclusive and welcoming environments, mitigating resentment regardless of border controls or burden allocation. This approach also hints toward a new perspective on public attitudes towards refugees, potentially introducing ORSED as a measurable variable in empirical studies.

Author

• Muhammet Ali Asil, Augustana University