Cosmopolitan Acceptance: A Model for Understanding Views of Acceptance Towards Asylum Seekers

Abstract

This article offers a broad overview of how the concept of cosmopolitanism can inform an understanding of the acceptance of asylum seekers by members of settled populations. We begin with a brief history of cosmopolitan thought before summarising how the concept is understood in contemporary social theory. We then propose a theoretical framework which links inclusionary views towards asylum seekers with theories of cosmopolitanism and provides a model that allows ’cosmopolitan acceptance’ to be operationalised for the purposes of empirical research.