This course will begin in the first weeks with the basics of providing clear definitions and a framework for understanding international refugee and asylum law. Terms will be defined, an understanding of the treaty laws, agreements and obligations of the United Nations and countries around the globe will be provided. But, this course aims to go further, moving on to provide situational awareness for critical thinking and examination of the challenges of international immigration.

The class will move to begin to understand why people leave their homeland and what their options are. Poverty, instability, environmental challenges and more will be discussed as learners consider the options of displaced persons and the legal ramifications of the situation. The challenges of how to tackle the problem from the UN agencies tasked with refugee and asylum will be considered as logistics, health and sanitation conditions, funding and political will challenges abound. Learners will be challenged in class to examine this area of international law from various perspectives including displaced persons, governments, refugee aid workers, neighboring countries etc.

The class will cover refugee and asylum issues first on the continent of Africa, then on the continent of Europe and finally, the class will examine the refugee and asylum challenges in the Americas and the recent issues surrounding the U.S. immigration policy.

The medium of learning will include lectures, analysis of video, audio and primary source documents, discussion debate and project based learning such as the opportunity to work on building a model of a refugee camp with best practices instituted.