Do refugees have a right to choose where in the world to settle? Philosophers working on the ethics of asylum have recently grappled with this question. Some have argued that the legal and institutional recognition of a right on the part of refugees to choose their preferred state of settlement would make it harder for the international community to distribute the refugee burden among member states, thereby making it harder for them to assist as many refugees as possible. Even Joseph Carens, the most prominent defender of open borders, argues that under non-ideal conditions, refugees have a moral right to live somewhere safe, but lack ‘a moral entitlement to choose where that will be’.