This chapter examines the notion of a refugee crisis from the perspective of Ireland. It argues for a broad understanding of refugee and it notes the political manipulation of a sense of crisis. It follows this scapegoating into the treatment of asylum seekers. Exploring the structural preconditions of the production of refugees, the chapter develops an historical perspective that leads towards the consideration of a moral economy of migration. From this perspective, the obligations of rich countries include an element of reparations for past wrongs, including slavery and colonialism. Alongside the right to security there might be an obligation to repair that could be discharged in the form of migration rights. These points are all illustrated from the social and political history of migration, asylum, slavery and colonialism in Ireland.