Sbagliando s'impera

Peter H. Schuck, professore della Yale Law School e autore di Why Government Fails So Often, and How It Can Do Better, propone in un articolo sul New York Times di oggi 9 giugno 2015 [Creating a Market for Refugees in Europe – NYTimes.com] di creare un mercato per comprare e vendere le quote nazionali di rifugiati che l’Unione europea si accinge ad assegnare a ogni Stato membro, analogamente a quanto già avviene in materia ambientale.

Voi che ne pensate?

A scheme allocating protection burdens according to each state’s capacities, much as the European Union is likely to adopt, is essential. A regional authority should calculate each state’s fair share using objective criteria such as gross domestic product, population and land mass. (The formula might also grant credits for past protection efforts.) It should also estimate how many refugees need protection, temporary or permanent, and how many of those can legally qualify for it — mere economic migrants cannot.

Here’s my proposed innovation: The agency should create and regulate a market in which states can buy and sell all or part of their protection quota obligations. Both the agency and the selling state must enforce international standards to ensure that the receiving state protects the human rights of those it agrees to accept.

Just as cap-and-trade schemes enhance environmental protection, this market would maximize the number of refugees protected by exploiting differences in states’ resources, politics, geography and attitudes toward newcomers. A more ethnically homogeneous or xenophobic state might eagerly pay a high price (in cash, credit, commodities, political support, development assistance or some other valuable) to more refugee-friendly states to assume its burden, rather than having to bring them in-country.

Such payments already take place, in a way: The United States and other countries sometimes pay other states to harbor immigrants; Australia just agreed to give Cambodia $32 million to do so.

Almost by definition, such a market would produce more protection than the status quo does, while ensuring that each state does its share in one form or another and that human rights are respected.