A case for compassion. An exploration of the virtue of compassion as promising to improve the approach towards refugees

Abstract

In our current context, many discussions take place about how to approach refugees. Nowadays, the focus might be relatively narrow and mainly guided by economic arguments accompanied by statistics and numbers. What appears to be lacking, to a substantial extent, is sensitivity and acknowledgement of the suffering taking place. Therefore, the virtue of compassion will be brought forward as promising to improve the current approach towards refugees; the central question will be if a virtue-based account of compassion has this potential. For this purpose, I will establish my notion of compassion. Subsequently, this notion will be further developed and interpreted as a virtue. It will be argued that the various dimensions of compassion are not only appropriate to apply to the context of refugees but can as well be beneficial to the approach. After establishing a virtue-based account, three significant concerns are discussed regarding applying compassion to the context of refugees: firstly, if the virtue of compassion is guiding enough in practice; secondly, if the virtue of compassion can offer a structural solution; lastly, if an imperfect virtue of compassion still has potential to improve the approach towards refugees. These concerns will be elaborately discussed, and it will be concluded that the virtue of compassion can be promising to generate a novel and improved approach towards refugees.