International law defines refugees by well-founded fear of persecution

Evidence

According to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, a “refugee” is defined as someone who, owing to a “well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.” — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 724

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the legal distinction between refugee and migrant that the chapter’s argument hinges on.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Arsalan Iftikhar, Fear of a Muslim Planet_ Global…, 724
• XREF: connects to: Modern refugees are persecuted for what they are, not what they did; Legal definition of victims reassures bystanders they are exempt from persecution — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 355

Related

• Modern refugees are persecuted for what they are, not what they did (similarity 0.91)
• Refugees and migrants share social needs despite legal separation (similarity 0.80)