Does Policy Matter? On Governments' Attempts to Control Unwanted Migration

Abstract

Public policy making on asylum takes place in an environment of intense public scrutiny, strong institutional constraints and international collective action problems.By assessing the relative importance of key pull factors of international migration, this article explains why, even when controlling for their differences in size, some states receive a much larger number of asylum seekers than others. The analysis of 20 OECD countries for the period 1985-1999 further shows that some of the most high profile public policy measures-safe third country provisions, dispersal and voucher schemes-aimed, at least in part, at deterring unwanted migration and at addressing the highly unequal distribution of asylum burdens have often been ineffective. This is because the key determinants of an asylum seeker's choice of host country are historical, economic and reputational factors that largely lie beyond the reach of asylum policy makers. The paper argues that the effectiveness of unilateral policy measures will be further undermined by multilateral attempts to harmonise restrictive policies and that current efforts such as those by the European Union consolidate, rather than effectively address, existing disparities in the distribution of asylum burdens.

Governmental mobility: The power effects of the movement of detained asylum seekers around Britain's detention estate

“…In focusing upon the governmental effect of the mobility of asylum seekers around the detention estate, the study addresses an area that has hitherto received relatively little attention. There has been a great deal of literature examining the implications of the government-orchestrated spatial and temporal organisation of asylum seekers for asylum seekers themselves (Chapman, 1999, Cornelius, 2005, Fekete, 2005, Thielemann, 2004, Van Hear, 2004.…”

“…The depiction of asylum seekers in the printed press has received widespread academic criticism and been associated with a range of negative consequences for asylum seekers themselves (Finney and Robinson, 2007, Kaye, 2001, Kessler, 2001, Mollard, 2001, Speers, 2001, Thielemann, 2004, Boswell, 2003. In the particular context of the detention of asylum seekers in the UK, Mallock and Stanley (2005) draw out the connections between aggressive media reporting of asylum seekers and the use of detention as a punitive system of immigrant disciplining in response to public fears surrounding forced migrants.…”

Asylum Policy in the West: Past Trends, Future Possibilities

“…21 While new unilateral measures in the area of resettlement are beginning to emerge, burden (or responsibility) sharing remains, despite many EU-level proposals, relatively undeveloped. In the 1990s, Germany was a strong supporter of responsibility sharing, while France and especially the United Kingdom were generally hostile (Thielemann 2002). Unsurprisingly, when asylum applications to the UK trebled in the late 1990s, its policymakers began to see the benefits of cooperating with other EU countries.…”

Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain : Markets, Citizenship and Rights

“…Despite these unresolved questions, many scholars conclude that the persistent gap between policy objectives and outcomes -dubbed an 'empirical fact' by Cornelius and Tsuda (2004: 5) -proves that the state is loosing control (Sassen 1996), that migration flows are far beyond the states' capacity for control (Massey 1998) and that policies do not always matter (Thielemann 2003). There could be objection, however, that, at least in part, such conclusions arise from the definition of the problem and particularly from the initial distinction between policymaking, policy goals, implementation and outcomes.…”