The term “asylum seeker” is usually used to designate, often descriptively, a person seeking certain predefined types of international protection.

The person in question is apprehended under the prism of refugee status as a “candidate refugee” or assimilated to other migrants lacking legal status.

This book invites the readership to reflect upon the existence, in the current state of positive law, of a legal category in its own right, capable of encompassing all persons seeking international protection, regardless of the type of protection sought and allowing recognition of an independent protection status for them, better adapted to the particularities of their situation.

The evolution of the notion of “international protection” through the interaction between the different personal protection regimes allows the disconnection of the search for asylum from refugee status and the adoption of a more formal functional approach in this matter. This opens the way to the conceptual empowerment of the asylum seeker and the identification of a legal status specific to him/her.