Coordination and Fair Division in Refugee Responsibility Sharing

We analyze the problem of international responsibility sharing for a refugee group seeking protection from the dangers of mass violence arising from inter-state conflict or the collapse of a fragile state. After reviewing several proposed solutions, we characterize responsibility sharing as a coordination problem in a simple sequential “moves” game between two potential host countries. We demonstrate that, ultimately, the country that makes the first move to receive refugees bears a disproportionate responsibility. We then draw on two historical case studies that illustrate the difficulties of coordinating a fair division of refugee responsibilities. To solve the coordination problem, we adapt a fair division procedure by inverting one first presented by Hugo Steinhaus for dividing “goods.” We demonstrate that the procedure is applicable to costly “obligations” under different scenarios and is manipulation proof, as each participating country has an obviously dominant strategy.