ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the views of critics emanating from within the community of refugee scholars and who are similarly despairing of the long-held solutions to mass displacement. It discusses proposals to build ‘refugee islands’, including a plan developed by a respected Dutch architect. Other commentators and activists see potential in sanctuary and welcoming cities, developing ‘incubator villages’, refugee cities, or creating a structure called ‘Zatopia’. James C. Hathaway and Daniel Ghezelbash have revisited this idea in the Asia-Pacific context, arguing that responsibility for providing protection to refugees should shift from the national to the regional level. The basic premise would be that asylum seekers could apply for protection anywhere in the stated region. Perhaps the most widely attempt to rethink and transform the ‘broken refugee system’ is that undertaken by Alexander Betts and Paul Collier. Both are insiders to the world of refugee research and policy.
